Ignis Deus
by DeExil
Summary: In a desperate attempt to save Naruto from the future Hokage, Sarutobi sends him to another world. But will he really be safe there?
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: **In a desperate attempt to save Naruto from the future Hokage, Sarutobi sends him to another world. But will he really be safe there?

**Pairing: **Naruto x Erza

**Note: **Why did I upload a new story? Because I lost control over my life…Will I update the others? Yes…Did I answer all questions? I hope so…

Also, Naruto never attended the Shinobi academy, just to get that out of the way. He is 8 when the story starts, then after the small time-skip he is 10 (like most of the crew)

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

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**Ignis Deus – Chapter 1**

"_Eight years ago the Kyuubi was released, during Kushina-chan's childbirth. I don't know what happened, or how exactly it happened considering Minato was there by her side at all time and she never did tell me everything. The shock must have been too much for her. All I learned was that a group called Akatsuki was after the tailed beasts, its one of the reasons he's here right now, with you._

_But, before I begin with the other reasons you'd probably want to know what became of Kushina, what made her decide to send him here in your care. _

_It all began eight years ago, just a day after the assault on Konoha…_

**xXx**

"Is this…?" an old man asked peering over in the crib next to the Sandaime, his eyes scanning the contents of the crib with a critical eye. Next to him stood an elderly woman, she didn't seem to want to get close to the crib; it was like it would devour her at any given moment. Finally, in the background, stood a crippled old man holding a cane in his hand, his eye closed in contemplation.

"Yes…this is him…" Sarutobi replied with a sigh, he was tired, he wanted to go and sleep, he wanted to think that everything that had happened yesterday was just a bad nightmare, but even this morning, when he woke up he knew that it was real and there was no way he could change that…no matter how powerful he was.

"So…what do we do with him?" the man peering over the crib asked as the aged Hokage looked down at the ground, thinking.

"We could train him." Replied the old war hawk as he stepped forward into the light.

"His mother would never agree to it." The woman replied with a scowl on her face as Sarutobi shook his head.

"I'd never approve of it as well…" he replied looking up at the crippled man and glaring towards him "…Minato would be ashamed if I let it happen…"

Danzo scoffed and dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "Minato is dead…as for the mother…she was the previous host, if you would have let me train her when she was young none of this would have happened in the first place." He said calmly as he gazed towards the aged kage.

Said kage narrowed his eyes as he moved forward and brought his hands up to his face. "If I would have let you do that…the boy would have never been born…"

The crippled man scoffed once more. "Wouldn't have been a loss..." he said making Sarutobi glare at him "…we lost more ninja's than his life is worth…son of a Kage or not."

"I agree with Danzo…as a weapon he'd make up for all those lost lives." The woman said as the man took several steps back and shook his head at the statement.

The Hokage slammed his fist on the table in front of him and glared towards the elder. "I will not turn this child into a toy for you to use as you please." He said firmly, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Think rationally Sarutobi…" Danzo piqued in once more as he took a step forward. "…the boy has so much potential, he has the blood of both the Namikaze and Uzumaki flowing through his veins…" he stated as he looked towards the crib with a neutral face. "…at the same time he has the Kyuubi sealed inside of him…he's a powerhouse, he can make up for fifty ninja…no, a hundred or more if trained right."

Sarutobi growled as he looked towards the crib, Danzo was trying to make him go against his promise to the Yondaime; he was trying to make him agree to such an atrocity.

"Even so…" he stated turning to face the crippled man once more. "…I will not…I will never turn him into a weapon! He will live a normal life, with his mother and there is nothing you can do about it." He spat out as he stood up and locked eyes with Danzo, daring him to oppose him.

The entire room was silent, no one talked and no one moved. The only sounds they could hear were the soft snores of the baby in the crib. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Danzo turned around and started leaving.

"Fine…play your little game Sarutobi…but know this, one day, you will regret this decision…"

**xXx**

…_I had no idea what he meant by that, the only thing I could think of was an open declaration of war for the boy. I could have had him arrested for treason, but at the same time there was no proof for that. He was slippery…just like a snake. _

_We decided to keep his father a secret; no one apart from the elders, myself and a few ANBU knew that he was the son of the late Yondaime. At the same time, I made the worst mistake in my entire life. _

_They constantly pestered me to station an entire division of ANBU at Kushina's door, to always peer over her shoulder on the child, like the boy was a ticking paper bomb, a bomb so powerful that it could wipe the entire village in one blast._

_But, that is not all…I had to choose between that, having her and the boy locked up in one of the abandoned headquarters under constant surveillance…or let the public know the truth of what happened to the Kyuubi. I think you know what I chose…in the end…_

_Even that one was horrible, I knew what would happen; I knew what they would do. Even Kushina knew this; she came to me one day and confronted this matter with me, if she wasn't so weakened from the birth and the extraction of the tailed beast she would have left the village a long time ago…that's what she told me. _

_I would have gladly helped her escape…what happened after that announcement was not what I expected._

_People rioted – both civilians and ninja alike – they demanded blood, his blood. My ninja did their best in keeping them at bay but some managed to get through. She fought them off but she didn't come out unscratched. Her chakra system had been destroyed, it was damaged when the Kyuubi had been extracted and since then it was repairing itself…but this time, it was gone for good. _

_The doctors gave her only a few years to live, ten at best. Each time she would use a jutsu or just chakra in general she would shorten her life span, I had to take her off the active ninja duty and by doing that I forced her on the streets. _

_Due to the fact that we had to keep her marriage a secret she could not access any of Minato's wealth, not even a penny. I did my best to give her money and support her with what I can, but in the end, all I could do for them is give them an apartment in the red district where all the drunkards gather up and all the low-lives…_

_I'm surprised however that no incidents happened; most of them seem to have taken a liking into the boy and his mother. Maybe that Uzumaki charm reflected in Naruto as well, I will never know this however. _

_The fact is that when needed, when the boy was in danger, those so called 'low-lives' were always there to back him up, to protect him and his mother…and they wanted nothing in return. Sometimes, I felt like those so called low-lives were actually the citizens of Konoha…I am so ashamed of this village, you cannot imagine…_

_But…on to the matter at hand. The reason why I sent Naruto to you…_

_The reason is simple…Kushina is dead. She died protecting Naruto. The Uchiha had been planning a coup for some time, we tried to negotiate but everything failed, we then tried to have them exterminated but surprisingly that failed as well. _

_Kushina arrived at my doorstep, bleeding to death, with her son in her arms. She died begging me to protect him, to save him from this hellhole…_

_I'm writing you this as they are trying to break the door to my office, I can hear my loyal ANBU still fighting outside, but it won't be long before they break down the door and rush in. I will take out as many as I can before they can take me down, but at the same time, I want to fulfill a mother's last request. _

_I've sent you Uzumaki Naruto, to be in your care, I've sent his mothers body with him as well to receive a proper burial…in your world. I have no one to send him to, Jiraiya can only do so much, Tsunade is nowhere to be found…there is no one left apart from you. _

_Please…do this for me…do this for a dying old man, look after the one I consider a grandson, look after the last person to inherit the Will of Fire. _

_Signed, _

_Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage."_

Makarov lowered the letter and looked down at the sobbing child and his deceased mother. She was covered by the Yondaime's cape. His eyes then moved to the figure behind the blond, if he remembered correctly it was one of the loyal ninja's to the Hokage, one of the ANBU.

Said ninja stood like a rock, it was impossible to read him, he didn't move at all, it was like looking at a statue. The man suddenly looked down at the crying boy and kneeled placing his hand on his head, he then looked up at the guild leader.

"I'll be leaving him in your care now…" he stated in a monotone voice, devoid of any emotion.

"Where will you go?" Makarov inquired, it wasn't like he didn't trust the man, but at the same time he couldn't just let him go and wonder around without any information on him. He was an assassin after all.

"Do not worry…" the man said as he looked back down at the boy "…I'm returning to my world, to complete Hokage-sama's last order." He declared as the aged guild master's brow shot up in surprise.

"Order?" he asked curiously.

The man nodded stiffly, his gaze never leaving the young boy. "Finish off those responsible for all this…destroy…Konoha, at all cost." He whispered making Makarov's eyes widen at the declaration. Had the Sandaime lost all hope in Konoha to order something like that?

The man suddenly stood up and lowered his mask; he recognized the eyes, the eyes of the traitors. "My name is Uchiha Itachi…last loyal ninja of the Sandaime Hokage and Konoha's harbinger of death." He declared in a voice so hollow, it reminded Makarov of death itself.

"Then…Naruto…" the guild master looked towards the boy, it was like he never heard the conversation around him, he was too soaked up in his own shattered world to hear them.

"No…" Itachi replied shaking his head. "…he will not return…never, not for revenge, not for assisting me…for nothing. This…" the young ANBU said stretching his arms out motioning to everything around him, to the town, to the world and the guild behind Makarov. "This…is his world now, this is his home…this is where he will live and where he will die…away from all the hatred, away from all the pain."

He lowered his arms and looked down; a small smile appeared on his face, a sad smile. "Its what his mother wanted, its what Lord Hokage wanted…its…what we made him promise…" he whispered as his face turned stoic once more and looked up at the old man.

Itachi looked at the young boy once more. "Naruto…" he called out but there was no reply. "Brother…" he whispered but still, the child gave no signs of ever replying back. Itachi knew however that the boy was now listening to him. "…remember your promise, find friends here, have your own adventure in this land and don't live your life in hate and never, ever, wish for vengeance…"

His gaze then turned towards Makarov one last time. "I leave him in your care…farewell…forever, hopefully…" he said as a portal opened behind him and swallowed him in mere seconds.

"Nii-san!" the young blond shouted as he felt the pressure of the portal, he turned around but it was too late, the Uchiha had vanished from this world, returning to the nightmare he had been plucked from.

Makarov looked at the boy sadly; said boy was frozen in shock that the only person he had left as a family was now gone for good.

The aged guild master walked over to the boy and placed his hand on his shoulder gaining his attention. He looked at the boy's eyes and all he could see was pain, he could see the eyes of one that had witnessed all the horrors of mankind.

He gave the boy a small reassuring smile. "My name's Makarov, guild leader of Fairy Tail." He introduced himself as the boy looked down at the ground and stole a few glances towards his mothers corpse, a few tears started leaking from his eyes.

"Why don't we give her a funeral?" Makarov asked as the blond gave a weak nod.

He smiled slightly at that and moved towards the boy, using a bit of his Titan magic he enlarged his body and picked up the deceased mother.

"She always…like the sunset…" the blond said weakly as Makarov nodded and beckoned the blond to follow him.

**xXx**

The entire night they had spent walking to a nearby hill; they buried her on top of the hill and waited for the sun to rise. The young blond was impressed by the sight and happy with his mothers final resting place, he could see the large building belonging to the guild in the distance, to him, it was an impressive sight.

The walk back to his new home had been made in silence; he didn't know what to talk about and was still in shock over what happened. Makarov did his best to make the young boy get over the death of his mother but even he knew that it was something one cannot forget in such short amount of time. He opted in trying to cheer him up and explaining this world to the blond.

When Naruto heard about mages he was immediately sucked in, he wanted to know more, he wanted to learn everything he could about them. For him, it was like living in one of the stories his mother used to read to him; stories with knights, mages, dragons and all of that. To think that old man Hokage would send him in a world where all of this exists; it made him happy and ever so grateful to the man

As they reached the guild Naruto stopped and looked around uncertain. "Don't worry…" he heard Makarov and turned towards him "…everyone in Fairy Tail is family, they will accept you." He said with a smile as the blond nodded vigorously and followed him inside.

"Master!" came the cry of two girls who suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Where have you been?" a white haired girl asked, she was dressed in punk Gothic style clothing, her long hair tied in a ponytail with a violet ribbon.

"We were worried when we didn't find you this morning!" the second girl shouted, she was wearing an armor over her body and her red hair flowed down her back. It reminded Naruto of his mother, he immediately took his eyes from her as he was reminded by his mother.

He felt someone placing their hand on his head and looked towards Makarov who smiled at him. "I'd like to introduce you to our newest member, Naruto Uzumaki." He said with a smile as the girls studied him and grinned.

"Hey there!" the white haired girl shouted pushing the red head away and making her fall on the floor. "I'm Mirajane..." she said with a grin as he blond tried to give a small smile.

The girl was suddenly pushed away as the red haired girl appeared in her place, glaring at Mirajane. "Don't mind miss bossy over there, I'm Erza Scarlet, nice to meet you!" she exclaimed happily as she extended her hand towards the blond who looked away and said nothing.

The girl's smile vanished as she lowered her hand. "See Erza? You are bad influence!" the white haired girl shouted with a grin as the red head turned to glare at her.

"I did nothing wrong!" she shouted back as Makarov shook his head and laughed softly.

"Girls…no one did anything wrong…" he said as he looked towards Naruto. "Why don't you go and meet the rest?" he asked as the blond gave a weak nod and walked past the girls, not even looking towards them.

They exchanged curious glanced between each other and then turned to look at the guild master. "His mother died last night to protect him." Makarov said as the two girls looked down in sorrow.

"But why didn't he greet me?" Erza asked looking back up. "Am I really frightening?" she asked as Makarov shook his head.

"Its maybe because of the hair." He said as Erza moved her hand through her hair and looked at it curiously. "His mother had red hair as well…must have reminded him of her." He said as the girl's eyes widened, she turned to look around the guild and saw the young blond talking with Elfman and Lisanna.

She then looked down sadly and gripped her armor as she remembered her past; she shook her head and made sure to correct this mistake. Makarov smiled as he saw the determination in her eyes.

"I'll apologize!" she said as she turned around and ran over to the blond leaving behind a surprised Mirajane and an amused guild master.

**xXx**

"Umm…Naruto-san?" Erza asked as she stopped behind the blond, the blond turned to look at her and gave a weak smile as his eyes moved away from her face. "I'm sorry if I brought back bad memories…" she said with a low voice, Elfman and Lisanna looked at her amazed, it was the first time they had heard Erza apologize for something.

The blond gave another weak smiled and looked at her this time. "You didn't do anything wrong…" he said as tears started falling from his eyes scaring Erza.

"No wait!" she cried out as she looked towards the guild master for guidance only to see he had vanished and all that was left was a huffing Mirajane. She turned back towards the blond and bit her lower lip as she moved forward and grabbed him in a sluggish embrace to calm him down.

The blond instinctively embraced her, making the girl blush at the act. He cried freely, not even bothering to hide it, his mother always told him there was no shame in crying for the ones you love and care.

All activities stopped as the remaining members, which weren't that many to begin with, turned to see the scene before them. They were all quickly informed of the blond's past, or at least the part that mattered. They gave him solemn looks.

After a few minutes the blond calmed down, he wiped his tears and pulled back giving a deep bow. "I'm sorry for my outburst." He told her as the girl giggled and shook her head.

"It's ok…feeling better?" she asked him bending forward to look at him.

He gave a grin and straightened himself. "Yea!" he said cheerfully between a few hiccups. "Thank you nee-chan!" he cried out as the girl brought her hand up to her face and giggled.

Mirajane walked forward and shook her head as she passed the two children. "Some boy you are…crying like a girl." She taunted with a smirk as the blond glared towards her but said nothing else. She giggled at that, she would never admit it but she found that cute, but it was so much more fun to tease him, she would make it a habit.

"Alright!" Makarov shouted as he appeared on the counter. "Now that that's all settled, we need to properly welcome Naruto in our little family!"

A chorus of 'yes' resonated throughout the building. "But before that…" Makarov said as he beckoned the blond to approach. "…you said you wanted to be part of Fairy Tail right?" he asked as the blond looked around at everyone, he could see them smiling towards him.

He looked towards Erza, she was smiling softly towards him and for a moment he thought he could see his mother standing behind her, smiling at him and encouraging him. Finally, he turned back towards Makarov and nodded vigorously, his eyes filled with determination.

"Where do you wish to have the symbol?" he asked with a smile as the blond extended his right hand. Moment later he was staring at the guilds symbol, on his right hand. He smiled as he looked back up at the guild master.

"I promise you oji-san! I won't let you down!" he declared "I'll become the best mage!"

"That … I do not doubt boy…" Makarov replied softly as he saw the blond run towards the children, already forming bonds with them.

**xXx**

Two years had passed since the blond joined Fairy Tail, during those years the guild had received three more members, all three were children roughly his age. The first was a girl named Cana Alberona, the blond quickly made friends with her. To him, she seemed like a nice girl, although a bit timid, maybe it was because of the new environment but he was sure she would get over it sooner or later.

The second person to join was a boy named Natsu Dragneel, a rather hyperactive boy. Needles to say, Naruto and him got a long perfectly, both were hyperactive, both loved to cause trouble or explore the land around them. He was surprised to learn that Natsu had been raise by a dragon, but when he tried to get Natsu to meet this dragon he was turned down. The look in the boy's eyes made the blond understand something bad had happened and he didn't press on further.

The third – and final – member to join was a boy named Gray, he somewhat reminded Naruto of Sasuke when he first met him, but that thought was soon pushed away. The boy was nothing like that punk from back home, he was a lot more friendly. Sure he had a few rough edges but that didn't make him close himself, he was quite friendly and talkative if you got him in the mood. The only downside was that he loved walking around almost completely naked, and worse of all, he was living in the same room as him.

That alone wasn't so bad, considering the boy was quiet most of the times and when Naruto studied or learned how to be a mage the boy would either give him helpful tips or leave him be. No, what was bad about him was that every time he was sent back to his room by Mirajane to get dressed he would take his clothes, not his own. It was like Gray considered Naruto's clothes to be his very own.

Needles to say they got in numerous fights because of that, Natsu joined the fight every time he was around. One thing Naruto never understood was why Natsu loved to get into fights with Gray, or why Gray loved to fight back with Natsu. The only person to actually break them up was Erza, both boys feared her and her power.

Naruto didn't like to admit it, but even he was frightened by Erza. He would never admit this because Erza was a special friend to him, she stayed by his side and helped him a lot to overcome his shock from losing his mother. How she knew that even after he stopped crying back then he was in shock over his loss he will never know, but he was grateful for her help.

Then, there was Mirajane. Naruto couldn't say he hated her, she wasn't a bad person, but she had this bad habit of getting on his (and Natsu's) nerves by either trying to make them cry or laugh at them – and taunt them – when they actually did cry.

This of course led to fights between Erza and Mirajane, fights that could only be broken if either the guild master stopped them or Lisanna stopped her sister.

Mirajane, or Mira as everyone started calling her, wasn't a bad person. She was quite helpful when she wanted to be, this mostly happened when Erza wasn't around it seemed. It was like she had something against Erza, or she just loved pestering the girl.

Towards him, she was quite a pleasant girl. Rarely did she taunt him or make fun of him, it made the blond wonder what was the 'trigger' that made her do a 180 every time Erza was around. He never did ponder on that too much however.

There was no one that Naruto actually didn't like in the entire guild. Despite his rough edges, Makarov's grandson, Luxus, was a great guy. He could be funny at times and when he wanted to and spent quite a lot of time with him and Natsu especially. He was older than most of his friends in Fairy Tail, about 12 years old or so, he wasn't sure and the boy never told them.

Despite all that there were moments when the teen was detached from everyone, when he had a far-away look in his eyes and didn't feel like talking to anyone. They asked him and begged him to tell them what was wrong, but all he would do was smile and tell them everything was fine.

Naruto wanted to know why; when he asked Makarov about his grandson's attitude the man had a far away look in his eyes, he whispered something that Naruto didn't fully understand. Something about his own son, after that however, he never inquired any further. He knew when not to press on.

Ever since he had joined the guild he started learning about this world even more, he started training to become a mage as well. Despite the fact that he could not use any spell yet nor did he show any signs of being a mage he continued to try his best to improve in what he already knew. He knew that he could do it, he felt something inside of him, something that he could use to help him.

He knew that the world he came of was filled with Ninja and what they used was called Chakra. But he didn't know how to use that, nor how to call upon it. His mother didn't want to ruin his childhood and teach him ninja techniques…not yet. The only thing she did teach him was stealth and how to blend in with others.

Even after he arrived in this world he never stopped practicing what his mother taught him, he could vanish from everyone's eyes and no one would realize it until he was far away from their reach.

Despite being told not to do this too often, he had used his ability in stealth to play pranks on the nearby town, no one had caught him and no one had seen him. It eased Makarov a little bit but he was still not pleased with how the blond was using his abilities. He made sure to voice his opinion and berate the blond, making him promise not to pull pranks on the townspeople anymore. After all…jobs started appearing with a bounty on his head, he couldn't have the council figure out that one of the members of Fairy Tail was pulling pranks on people.

While he was forbidden to ever pull stunts like that the blond still used all his knowledge in becoming a master in stealth, there were only a handful of people in the guild that could find him during his vanishing acts, Makarov being one of them of course.

Currently the blond was outside, in the gardens, practicing his magic; or at least trying to create something. Next to him stood Makarov, he was looking at the blond, waiting patiently for him to do something.

Naruto remembered the man's words, he concentrated, he studied, he stayed away from the dark arts and focused on only that which was permitted. And yet, he still couldn't do anything. Everyone in the guild had some sort of power, even the youngest of them could do something. Heck, Natsu was stronger than him on all accounts.

With a sigh, Makarov stood up and shook his head. "Naruto…maybe fire is not your affinity…"

"No!" the blond shouted as he slammed his fists on the ground, glaring down. "Hokage-ojii-san said I have the Will of Fire…"

"That doesn't mean that you can control fire, its not even related to that to begin with." Makarov tried to reason, but it didn't work. Once the blond set his mind on something, nothing, but absolutely nothing could change his mind. He was scared that one day it will lead him to his own grave.

"But…" the blond started looking sadly at the ground. "…I'm from Hi no Kuni…we all have fire affinity…" he whispered, in his mind if he was born in Fire Country it meant that he would have affinity for fire.

Makarov only shook his head at that. "Your father never used Fire, he couldn't control it nor summon it…your mother was able to control a bit and use Jutsu's but that was mostly because of the Kyuubi." He said.

Naruto twitched as he heard the name; he still didn't know what to make of the fox. Part of him wanted to hate him for everything that had happened, from his father's death, to his mother's death. But part of him felt like he couldn't blame the fox and that the blame fell on the man that assaulted his mother when he was born and the villagers for their blind hatred.

He didn't make contact with the fox, the idea of going there and trying to talk with the fox just scared him. He also never told anyone in the guild about this, only Makarov knew what he held inside of him. Even though people asked him about the whiskers and why he had them he always replied them with what his mother said. 'It's a trait from mom, just shows I'm her son.'

When asked about his mother and if she was human or not he said nothing, Makarov cleared things up and told them she was human, but they still wanted to learn more about the whiskers. Therefore, the only thing Makarov could think of was that the whiskers were a hereditary family trait, which rarely appears. Strangely, they seemed to accept that and never inquired further.

"Maybe you are a different type of mage, a wind mage…or ice…"

"NO!" Naruto shouted once again startling Makarov. "I'll be a fire mage! Just wait and see old man, I'll do it, I'll become the greatest Fire mage in history! I will make kaa-san, tou-san and nii-san proud!" he declared as he stood up and walked away leaving a smiling guild master behind.

The man shook his head at the blond. "Don't come crying to me when you realize its impossible then." He called out, yet the blond ignored him. He laughed to himself as he walked back to the guild; this was going to be interesting.

**xXx**

Chatter and laughter echoed in the guild as everyone was sitting at the tables and eating. Only one person was missing for the ninth time in a row and that person was none other than Naruto.

Everyone was worried; the only ones that didn't seem to be worried were Makarov and his grandson, they both had faith in the blond.

It had been a week since the blond's declaration, at first nothing changed with him, he kept coming in morning to eat and then at night – or in the middle of the day if he was famished – but ever since three days ago the blond had stopped coming down from his room to eat.

Mira was the first to confront the blond, she tried to force him to move, she tried taunting him, but it was like her voice hit a stone wall. The blond didn't flinch or even acknowledge here presence.

In a fit of anger she ordered Erza to move the blond from his spot, which resulted in a fight between them. A fight that was later broken by the guild master, that night however, he left them without berating them like he would usually do. He was strangely quiet.

The next morning Gray tried to move the blond, he tried encasing him in ice and pushing him down stairs, however, it seemed like Naruto had anticipated that and vanished before Gray could even make a move, it annoyed him to no end and it also worried him.

Erza found him eventually in the garden, hidden in his usual spot under the large plants that Makarov loved to grow. She tried talking to him, tempting him with his favorite food but nothing seemed to work.

His gaze was constantly fixed on a book for apprentice magicians; he kept studying that book over and over again like he had missed something.

"Naruto…" Erza said softly "…if you want…I could teach you my style…" she said as the blond didn't even turn towards her.

"No…" he said quietly "…that's your style, I want mine…I know I can do this…" he replied stubbornly.

"But Naruto…at least…come and eat." She tried to reason with him, yet the blond had tuned her out by now.

She tried for several more minutes to get through him before she turned and left telling the blond not to come crawling towards her if he was dying of hunger. Yet, as she reached the door she turned to look back towards the blond's location, she was worried for him.

That night Mira tried her luck once again, she stormed towards his room and slowly opened the door.

"Kaa-san…" she heard him, she slowly peered inside and looked around the room, the blond was sitting in the middle of the room with books and papers scattered all around him. He was looking at something in his hands. "…I…can't do it…" she could hear his voice crack and looked down at the ground sadly. "…I don't know why Kaa-san…please help me…" he begged.

Slowly, Mira closed the door and took a deep breath. She knocked and then opened the door. She was surprised to see the blond reading through the books and his notes like noting had happened until now.

"Naruto…" she said softly, she had a weak spot for him, she never admitted it but he was cute and a dependable person. She liked that he had a soft spot and wasn't only muscle and no brains.

The blond gave no reply however, it didn't even seem like he was acknowledging her presence. Slowly, she walked over to him and sat down behind him, she moved forward and wrapped her arms around him making him tense. He was forced to hold a surprised gasp from escaping his lips.

Mira placed her head on his back and looked at the wall to the right. "I'm sure you can do it…" she told him making the boy's eyes widened and making him wonder if she had heard him call out for his mother. "I'm sure you will be able to become a mage."

They stood in silence for what seemed like hours, the blond didn't know what to tell her. Then she suddenly stood up and walked out of the room without saying any other word, it surprised him that she didn't snap at him, she was very strict…this…he had never expected in the first place.

With a smile he turned back to work, bent on finishing what he started, there was no way Naruto Uzumaki would be defeated, not now…not ever.

After four days of absence the blond finally made his appearance.

Everyone was gathered at the tables, preparing to have their meal when they heard the blond. "Jii-san!" they could hear him yell and running down the stairs towards them.

Makarov looked towards the stairs and saw the blond there with a large grin on his face, his entire face was however red and black, like he had burned himself, part of his clothes were also ripped exposing his chest which was also red.

"Naruto?" Makarov asked in a worried voice. "What happened?" he asked trying to move towards the blond.

"I did it!" he shouted pumping his fists in the air.

Everyone jumped up from their seats and moved to help the blond, to check on him, only to have him stop them.

"Look!" he shouted as he extended his right arm and opened his palm, turning it to face the ceiling. A large flame then shot out of his palm, or so it seemed. It was twice as big as the blond yet it didn't seem like he was affected by it.

"You…actually…did it?" Makarov asked, he never expected the blond to create something this big, he knew that in the end the blond could succeed, but this was beyond all his expectations.

"Yea!" shouted the blond "And look what else I can do!" the flame then shot upward and descended towards the blond scaring everyone for a second, yet before the flame could harm the blond it moved to the side and started swirling around him, like it was a shield meant to protect him.

"And look at this!" he said once more as the flame moved in front of him and started taking shape. "It's Happy!" he declared with a grin, indeed the flame had taken the cats form, even going as far as doing its trademark pose. The cat did the same pose with a resonating "Aye!"

The flame then started taking another shape, in mere seconds they were staring at a copy of Makarov, it wasn't perfect, but it looked almost like him. "And this…" the blond's voice resonated once more as the flame started morphing once more, now instead of Makarov the flame had taken the form of a woman they had never see in their life. They could vaguely distinguish her features as the model wasn't perfect from what it seemed.

"Kushina?" the guild master asked completely amazed.

"Yes…" the blond replied with a small smile. "…this is kaa-san…"

Everyone's eyes grew at that, the blond had created – or at least tried to – create an image of his mother. This was something unheard of and something a low ranking mage could barely do. Yet the blond didn't even seem winded by all this.

Finally, the guild master started laughing. "That's mighty impressive boy!" he shouted with a grin on his face that was matched by said boy. "Now…why don't you come and eat…I'm sure you're famished." He said as the blond nodded happily.

However, what they didn't expect was for the fire to explode in front of the blond. Erza and Mira shouted for the blond and rushed towards him as Makarov and the rest looked at what happened in shock.

A cough was heard as the smoke cleared revealing a redder Naruto. "I need …" he coughed "…to work on dispelling the fire without it exploding in my face." He stated as two pairs of hands suddenly grabbed him and started shaking him.

"Don't you ever do that again!" he heard both Erza and Mira shout at him, the girls turned to glare at each other before glaring at the blond who smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry…sorry…I promise I won't do it again." He said as they entangled him in a hug.

Everything had returned to normal…or as normal as it can get in the guild.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: **Just a small heads up, chapter 2 and 3 will be a bit...sappy...

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 2**

Naruto ran happily through the town of Magnolia, he had finally managed to complete a low ranking mission that the guild master let him do. It was an easy job that didn't involve any fighting but it paid the blond enough money to go through town and buy something that catches his eyes.

The ten year old boy ran from store to store browsing all their articles; he looked at magical objects and clothes as well. Ever since he saw those powerful mages and how they dressed he wanted to find some kind of clothing that would make him stand out and at the same time recognized and respected – or feared by his enemies.

Yet, all the articles he could find were over exaggerated in price. He had only a quarter of what he needed, it would require to take on even more jobs before he could buy the clothes he wanted.

With a sigh he left the store and kept walking down the trade district. He stopped as his eyes landed on the most prestigious store in the district, from what he heard, the most prestigious in all of Fiore. They had everything a mage needed.

With a large grin he ran towards the store and pushed the doors open, stepping inside. He was amazed at how massive the place was, he felt incredibly small in here.

Looking around he saw mages browsing through the store, looking at all kinds of items. Potions, books, weapons, mediums…there was everything here.

"Excuse me boy…" the blond turned around and saw a large man carrying several scrolls under his arm. "…this is a store for mages, unless you are a mage and part of a guild I'd have to ask you to leave." He stated.

Children normally joined guilds from a young age, it wasn't a rule, but it was easier for them to get to know everyone and to gouge everyone's skill. It helped them find partners and increase their overall potential as a mage.

With a grin the boy showed the man his tattooed hand and presented him with a copy of the official papers. Makarov told him to never leave without them, it was a rule imposed by the council that mages had to have a copy of their forms when entering stores to indentify them.

That little fact would later change however.

The man looked at the emblem and nodded recognizing it, he then read through the papers and a smile appeared on his serious face.

"Everything is in order…welcome to Armifer young man, if there's anything you need feel free to tell me." He said with a warm smile as the blond bowed and nodded vigorously.

"I will, thank you sir!" he exclaimed as the man smiled one more time before he walked away to continue his work.

The young boy turned to look around once more and held his breath as a large smile appeared on his face. He never believed he would be here to begin with, he didn't know where to start from.

He shook his head; he would have to look at everything related to fire mages or just fire in general. That would narrow down his search and help him find something of use.

For the next several hours the blond had spent his time in the store, browsing through everything they had related to fire or fire mages in general. A few of the mages were kind enough to help him around and tell him where to look for certain items.

It felt so much different here then back in the land he was born, he detested thinking about it but he loved comparing the two. It just showed how better life was here, unbound from their laws and their glares.

For the first time, the blond was sad not because he couldn't buy something, but because he didn't actually have enough money to afford it. No one tried to scam him or change the prices, everything was fair trade.

He saw several weapons that would enhance his fire spells, he even saw a gauntlet said to have been forged by the King of Dragons himself, though that was more of an item for a Dragon Slayer and not for him.

There was also a scythe on display, at first the blond was scared it might be related to the dark arts, the store owner clarified his confusion. Apparently the scythe wasn't a weapon of the dark arts, the scythe had its own powers, it was able to create illusions and flames from nothing.

He studied it with fascination, he had never heard of such a weapon, but at the same time he rarely spent time reading all those magazines like Erza and Mira do. He focused on his training day in and day out, he wanted to perfect everything.

At time they told him he was isolating himself too much, so he did his best to correct that by hanging with his friends more and dividing his schedule so that he could spend time with the ones important in his life and keep studying and improving.

He finally moved his gaze away from the scythe and returned to the books section, he studied every little book with fascination. There were books that could teach him how to create potions, elixirs and then there were books like he had back in his room, meant to teach him the basics, to improve and for the experts, books on how to create their own unique spells and styles of fighting.

His eyes finally rested on a large red book entitled _'The art of Fire Elementals'_. His brows shot up in surprise, he had heard of those beings and was fascinated by them, he looked at the price and his eyes gleamed happily as he saw he had enough money to purchase it.

Quickly grabbing it he ran to the counter where the shop keeper was sitting and reading through the scrolls. He looked up from the scrolls at the young blond who handed him the book.

The man looked over the book and then back at the blond child with surprise in his eyes. "You know this is a book for advanced mages right?" he asked as the blond nodded with a big smile.

"I know, but I don't care, someday it will help me. Better have it now then never!" he said with a grin as the man smiled and nodded.

After paying for the item he bid farewell to the shop keeper and left the shop.

His mind was completely focused on the book, he already wanted to go home and read it. Sure it might be a while until he could actually practice spells for summoning Elementals or spells used by said Elementals but it was worth looking through it.

"There you are!" he heard someone exclaim, he looked up surprised and then grinned happily as his eyes rested on the red haired girl.

"Erza-chan!" he shouted running towards her.

Said girl blushed slightly and glared at him. "What did I tell you about calling me that?" she asked with a small 'huff' as the blond grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.

"Never to call you that…but still Erza…you're cute when you blush." The girls blush deepened as she heard that and stammered a few words before turning around with her back at him.

The blond laughed at her antics, making the girl silently fume.

There were a few girls in Fairy Tail that had a small crush on him, Erza and Mirajane were a prime example. Where other girls had started to get over their crush, for these two it didn't seem to go away.

Their fights now mostly started because of said blond, each one wanted his attention to be on them and them alone. The blond was oblivious to all of this, he thought they were just having fun and playing around, he didn't even know the girls had a crush on him.

"Laugh it up, I will have my revenge." She said with an evil grin as the blond sweat dropped and laughed nervously.

"Did you buy anything Erza?" he asked as the girl shook her head, they started walking back towards the guild.

"There was nothing that caught my eye…" she said with a frown "…I see you bought something." She stated eying the book in the blond's arms.

The blond looked down at the book and then at the girl with a smile. "Yea, it's a really cool book that will allow me to summon Fire elementals and learn more spells." He chimed happily as the girl gave him a soft smile.

"I'm glad you found something like that." She said.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, enjoying each others company.

Erza was nervous; it had been some time since she opened up to the blond and most of the guild. While she still couldn't let go of the past she hoped that one day she would be able to accept it.

With Naruto it was different; she feared what would happen if he turned on her like it happened in the past with her friend.

"Erza?" she heard the blond speak and turned to face him. "Why do you always wear that armor?" he asked as the girl looked away from him.

"I feel safe." She replied without beating a sweat.

"But…it must feel uncomfortable." He said as the girl glared towards him and then looked away.

"It's just who I am, I feel safe this way, just leave it like that!" she shouted as she felt the blond stop walking. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized that she had snapped at the blond, she turned towards him thinking he would be mad, however, he had a look of understanding in his eyes.

"Erza-chan…" he said moving towards her, the girl didn't try to berate him this time for using '-chan' at the end of her name. "…whatever happened, whatever will happen…I will always be there for you." He said with a smile as her heart skipped a beat. "…I will never let anyone hurt you! I'd die before anyone hurt you!" he declared.

The girl however was reminded by her past and looked down at the ground sadly, she then felt the blond embrace her, her eyes widened at the contact but said nothing.

"Trust me Erza-chan…as long as I draw breath, no one will hurt you, or anyone from Fairy Tail…I don't want…my past to repeat itself, I'll give it all to protect everyone!" he declared holding her tightly in his embrace.

Erza was speechless; she didn't know what to say. A small smile appeared on her lips as she punched him lightly in the chest making him take a step back.

"I told you not to call me that…" she said with a smile on her face, the blond could see a tear drop from her left eye. He smiled towards her and nodded once.

"Let's go back, I'm sure master is worried by now…" she said laughing softly as the blond moved next to her.

She looked towards the blond; he was something that was for sure. It seemed like when people were around him all their worries just vanished away, she couldn't place it, not even Mira knew what it was that made him so special. Makarov said it was a family trait, but he didn't expand on it, the happy gleam in his eyes however told them everything they needed to now.

Though she would never admit it, with him, she felt safe. While she was indeed stronger than him in terms of power…his heart was stronger then hers and she relied on him more than anything in the world.

Erza looked down at the ground clutching her chest, the smile never leaving her face as she thought about the blond. Maybe it wasn't just a crush, she was still too young to know but she felt different when near the blond.

The walk back to the guild was made in silence, but not an awkward one, it was a pleasant silence. All the time while walking back to their home Erza tried to get closer to him, until they were walking shoulder by shoulder. The blond didn't seem to mind as he only gave her a radiant smile, it made her happy to see those smiles.

Her good mood came to a halt however as they reached the entrance of the guild. Outside stood Mirajane, and from the looks of it she was angry. Angry was an understanding, it seemed like she was about to break something. Naruto wasn't sure but he somehow felt like this was going to be his fault, whatever was going to happen.

Erza glared at her rival as she stepped in front of the blond and walked over to Mira, she glared at her before walking past her. "I had fun…" she taunted as the white haired girl's face reddened. She could hear Erza laugh victoriously as she vanished behind the guild's door.

"Mira? Are you sick?" the blond asked as a hand was place on her forehead. Her eyes widened as she slapped the hand away and stammered.

"I'm fine…don't worry!" she exclaimed as the blond blinked owlishly before grinning.

"Alright, if you say so." He said as he ran past her.

"Wait, where are you going?" Mira called as she turned towards the blond.

"To my room! I want to read this book!" he shouted happily as he vanished behind the doors, a soft sigh escaped her lips as she shook her head. If only she had been faster, she could have spent the day with him.

A dark aura appeared around her as she remembered the reason why she couldn't spend the day with him, she had been tricked by Erza and the red head had dared to taunt her a few moments ago. She began plotting her revenge; she would make sure Erza would never trick her like that.

With an evil laugh she walked back inside the guild, scaring Natsu who was returning from a walk in the forest. He stood outside, frozen in shock and fear for a few moments before carefully walking back inside the guild.

**xXx**

As Naruto entered his, and Gray's, room he slammed the door shut and hugged the book to his chest.

"Agh!" he heard a yell follow by several crashes, he looked towards the origin of the sounds and started laughing as he saw a glaring Gray under a tone of books.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to place your entire book collection in one pile next to my bed?" he asked with a glare that Naruto thought it would actually burn him.

"You've never complained about my stuff before…" Naruto said with a deadpanned look as Gray sweatdropped.

"I'm not complaining, when do I complain?" the boy retorted in shock.

Naruto looked incredulously at him. "What do you call this?" he inquired making a reference to what he said a few moments ago. "Besides…I never complained when you took my clothes." He glared at the boy who laughed nervously.

"Uh…we have a barter system?" he asked nervously as the blond rolled his eyes. "But even so…" Gray continued with a glare as he looked towards the pile of book on top of him.

"Sorry about that." He said scratching his head as he walked over to his bed and placed his newly purchased book on it. He then walked towards Gray and started moving all the books away, helping the boy out of them.

As the last book was moved from the boy's body – it made Naruto wonder why Gray didn't just stand up when the weight wasn't that much anymore – he extended his hand to the boy and helped him back on his feet.

With a nod, Gray plopped back on the bed and turned with his back towards the blond, making said blond sweat drop at that. If Gray wasn't picking fights with Natsu, trying to get a higher ranking job or trying to steal someone's clothes he would sleep and sleep to no end.

With a sigh Naruto walked back to his bed and plopped down, but before he could relax he heard Gray talking. "I hope you're cleaning your mess…last I need is tripping on your stuff and breaking something."

Naruto's eyebrows twitched at the comment, who would be dumb enough to trip on some book or scrolls and break something? Still…he couldn't afford to get into serious fights with Gray; the boy was still stronger than him on all accounts. With a sigh he proceeded to clean up the 'mess'.

Gray hadn't changed at all since he first met him, neither did Natsu. It made the blond happy; he hoped that they would stay the same forever and never break the bonds they created. He cherished his friends more than anything, in the end, it was the only thing he had in this world, his only treasure.

A sad smile appeared on his face as he looked towards the calendar, his mothers birthday was just one month away. He made a habit of visiting her grave monthly, there was nothing wrong in that, what was wrong was the fact that he kept playing with the flames, modeling them so much until he could actually create his mothers image. It became like an addiction for the blond.

Makarov tried to stop him from continuing his work; he told him it would only make him suffer more. The blond didn't understand what the old man was saying, he was happy every time his 'mother' appeared before him, even though it wasn't the real deal.

"Naruto…" Gray whispered drawing the blond out of his train of thoughts. "…I'm worried…" he said while looking towards him, the blond looked down at the ground knowing Gray was talking about him.

"Don't worry…I'm fine." He reassured him with a large smile as the boy studied him for a second, he nodded and turned around going back to sleep; though he wasn't pleased with the answer.

Naruto turned to look at the book sadly; he picked it up and opened it, starting to read its contents. Sometimes he felt like they just couldn't understand him and his pain, sometimes he felt like they wanted to hold the only shimmer of happiness he had from her away.

**xXx**

Mirajane sighed for the umpteenth time from what it seemed today, just a day had past since the Naruto returned from his mothers grave. On her birthday he had the habit of leaving early in the morning and staying at her grave all day, only to return the next day. It never bothered them that much, at least not before he showed his ability to control fire so…freely.

The ten year old blond was acting strangely, all the time when he would return from his mother's grave he would summon the fire and shape it into her form. He would spend the days locked in his room, not opening the door to anyone, not even his roommate. At times she spied on him and saw him interacting with the flame, it was a sad display in her mind, the blond was still suffering yet he didn't want to show it to anyone. He was bottling up all his emotions inside of him.

It pained Mirajane to see him like that, she wanted to help him but there was nothing she could do. He didn't want to listen to anyone. When he didn't listen to Makarov himself it said something, it said just how much the blond had shut himself from the world around him. He was locked inside his own fantasy world, inside his own fairy tale, in the world he had lost.

At times like this she didn't have the strength to fight against Erza, the same went for the girl in question. In times like this they usually teamed up to try and get through to the blond, but it was like that time when he was learning to summon the fire, when he was aiming to actually become a mage. She felt angry towards him, part of her said it was wrong to be angry at him, it wasn't his fault the only thing he held dear was ripped apart from him like that, yet another part told her that he should let it go, that while he should never forget the past he shouldn't constantly live in it.

She was afraid, afraid that one day she might snap at him and the repercussions would be too harsh. For that, she tried to avoid him when she felt the anger inside of her trying to break out, she tried to steer clear of him when she felt the urge to shout at him and berate him for what he was doing. It wasn't her place to dictate his way of life…but she was worried for him, she didn't want to lose him and she didn't want for him to lose his sanity.

That day she just couldn't stand it anymore, she sneaked through the hallways and carefully lock-picked the door to the blond's room. She peered inside and the sight she saw shocked her to no end.

The boy had tucked himself in bed – that alone wasn't strange – by the bed side however was the flame, it was shaped perfectly after his mother; you would believe it was an actual human. The only dead give away was the fact that she was completely red and a few bits of flames would rise up and dissipate in the air.

His eyes however, they were dead for the lack of better words. She could not see the blond inside those eyes; it was like he was lost in the past.

"Another story kaa-san…please…" he whispered with a smile, yet his eyes remained dull, there was no light in them.

Mira gripped her chest as she felt tears dripping from her eyes, she lowered her head and silently closed the door. As the door closed she took a few steps back and clenched her fist, she wondered how it came to this, how could they not see what was happening to him? The scar never actually healed, it only intensified. And now…thinking back at the events that lead the blond to succeed in becoming a fire mage, she couldn't help but blame herself for everything.

With a determined look in her eyes she walked away, heading towards the bar to find the guild master. She would have to talk to him and make him understand that he had to put an end to what was happening to the blond, less they would lose him.

However, she was surprised, shocked and angered when Makarov said that it wasn't his place to get involved, she was angry when he told her to leave it be, that it would work itself out. She couldn't believe that, she saw him, she saw the look in his eyes. If he carried on like that there would be no turning back.

Then, it happened. At first it was Erza that snapped at the blond, she berated him for closing himself of from everyone. Erza was always strict, yet at the same time, she cared deeply for him, his apology never reached her as she left before he could even utter a word, he knew he had screwed up, he only hoped that it wouldn't be too late.

A month before his birthday was Mirajane's turn to snap; the blond was slowly coming back out of his shell and returning to his old self. Yet all that anger and frustration bottled up inside the white haired girl finally made its way out.

She would never forget the hurt look on his face, though she forgot the words she had uttered to the blond on that day as her mind wanted her to forget forever, his expression was forever burned into her mind.

For weeks she could not show her face to him, she thought she had screwed up for good. It was him that in the end brought her out of that guilt, it was him that told her he was alright and he apologized for his own actions. While that made her happy, deep inside she was still hurt for what she had said, she would never be able to forgive herself.

**xXx**

"Hm…" the eleven year old blond scratched his chin as he looked at the cards in his hands. His eyes moved to the girl in front of him, Cana had a grin on her face as she inspected her card.

He cursed under his breath, as much as he hated playing cards with the girl he just couldn't refuse her when she invited him for a game. She enjoyed humiliating her opponents at any card game, but it seemed like she enjoyed humiliating him even more. He dismissed that thought however, there was no way she would actually enjoy that, they were friends.

"So, Naruto…" she said leaning forward on the table, placing her hands under her chin and her grin never leaving her face. "…want to raise the bet?" she asked as the blond looked over his cards and started sweating.

Part of him wanted to raise the bet, it was easy money it told him…but the other part reminded him of all those times he had lost money to Cana. Out of all the young members of Fairy Tail, Naruto was among the top ones, with the most money and number of missions completed under his belt. The only ones topping him were Erza and Mira herself.

He smirked however, there was no way he would regret this. "I say… 3000 more jewels." The blond declared as the onlookers cheered for the blond and encouraged him. Mira shook her head with a heavy sigh, the blond just signed his own death warrant – so to speak.

"Fine…" Cana replied with a smirk as she placed 3000 more on the table, on top of the already existing 7000 jewels.

"Show me your hand." The blond said as he showed his, two aces and two queens.

Cana looked at the cards and smiled evilly. His eyes widened in horror as she placed the cards down showing a royal flush.

"Wha-" the blond said jumping from his seat and looking at the cards with wide eyes. "but…" he stammered, his eyes wide in shock, he couldn't understand what just happened.

"I'll take this, thank you very much." Cana said grabbing the money on the table and pocketing it. "Maybe next time Naru-kun…" she said with a wink as the blond started slamming his head on the table and making the girl laugh at him and his misfortune.

"What kind of friend laughs at their friend's misfortune?" demanded Naruto as he pointed towards Cana accusingly.

"One that walked home with said friend's money…" she replied with a grin making the blond slump down on the chair.

"I told you not to bet against Cana-chan." Mira said as she stepped forward and stopped behind the blond.

Said blond grumbled under his breath as the girl's eyebrows twitched. She placed her hands on his shoulder making him tense and shiver uncontrollably.

"What was that Naruto-kun?" she asked sweetly as the blond turned towards her laughing nervously.

"Nothing Mira-chan…absolutely nothing…" he said between nervous laughs.

"As much as I love seeing you beat your boyfriend, I still have a game to play with him." Cana said with a smirk as a deep blush appeared on both Mira's and Naruto's cheeks.

"He's not my boyfriend." The Goth girl growled as she flung the blond from his chair and into the air. Said blond had a deadpanned look on his face as he was flying through the air. Realizing what she had done she turned towards the blond with a frightened look on her face. "Naruto!" she exclaimed as he crashed in the bar.

Moments later Erza walked behind the bar and picked the blond up, dusting him, she turned towards Mira and glared. The girl returned the glare in full force.

"Well, well…little demon girl shows her true colors?" she asked with a sinister look on her face.

Naruto gulped knowing where this would lead, he couldn't understand why they always starting fighting because of him. It was a mystery he just couldn't solve and Makarov didn't help at all.

"What did you say tomato?" Mira shot back as Erza laughed at the poor attempt at insulting her.

"You heard me…I think its best if Naruto stays away from you…least he will get seriously hurt from your mood swings." She replied with her grin ever present on her face.

The blond thought he could see sparks flying between the two, he knew now that there was only a moment left before they started fighting. Carefully, he slipped away and moved as far away as he could from the two girls. He was lucky they usually ignored him when they started fighting; else he feared what they would do to him if they found him sneaking away.

As he tried to walk out of bar he bumped into Natsu that was just retuning from a job. He looked up at his friend. "Get me out of here." He whispered as the boy looked in the bar wondering what frightened the blond. His eyes widened in fear as he felt the tense atmosphere and saw the two girls glaring at each other.

With a swift move he grabbed the blond by the collar and ran out of the bar, there was no way he would go inside just as the two would start fighting, he knew better then to get in between their fight.

Both boys stopped in the middle of the town, panting and sweating. Slowly, they both started laughing, their laughter filling the night.

"Oy! Shut up!" someone yelled as a shoe was flung towards them, the boys dodged it and ran away from the area while still laughing.

It was moments like these that made the blond happy, spending time with his friends and having fun with them. He wished these moments would last forever, even though they would soon come to the age when they would take on even more dangerous missions, he hoped that they would all prevail over all the obstacles.

The two kept running down the empty streets, at one point running past a night patrol that looked at them curiously before resuming his patrol. Mostly everyone in town knew Natsu and Naruto, they were known for their talent as mages and their quirks.

They came at a halt at one of the bridges; they stood on its edge throwing pebbles into the calm river.

"So what happened this time?" Natsu asked trying to strike up a conversation with the blond.

Said blond sighed before beginning his short tale. "I played a game of cards with Cana again…lost, obviously and then Mira-chan came and berated me…"

"Nothing out of the ordinary." Natsu laughed as the blond snorted.

"Yea, but then it was that Cana told Mira to leave, and I quote, 'you're boyfriend' …" he replied taking a pause "…or something like that…" he whispered "…all I remember is being flung in the air and crashing in the bar…Erza-chan coming and starting a fight…again."

Natsu's laughter filled the air as the blond finished the tale; there was never a dull day in the guild with them around. Naruto only shook his head at his friend; the boy wasn't helping at all.

"Where is Happy though?" he asked as Natsu immediately answered.

"Spending the day with Lisanna."

"Oh." Naruto replied as he threw another pebble in the river.

"I heard Gray talk…" Natsu said after a short pause making the blond turn and look at him curiously, he wondered what Gray had said, the boy usually kept to himself unless there was something actually important to say.

Then there was the time when he said whatever came to his mind to get into fight with Natsu. That lone sentence meant something else, usually if Natsu got in a fight with Gray he would just rant on and on how Gray was being a bastard.

"You're at it again…" Natsu said looking down at the river.

The blond looked away from his friend and at the river as well. He knew what he meant, but there was no helping it. As much as he wanted to stop he just couldn't put an end to re-creating his mothers image and thinking – imagining – that he was living in the past once more.

"I think you should stop." the Dragon-Slayer continued. "I'm afraid of what might happen if this continues." He told the blond as he turned around and started walking back to the guild, leaving Naruto alone to think.

"I'm afraid as well…" Naruto replied to no one.

**xXx**

A week had past since the fight in the bar and Naruto's little talk with Natsu. Currently the blond boy was in the guild's garden, practicing his fire spells. He was slowly improving, even Makarov was impressed by the blond and his ability to shape fire at his own will.

"_You have a great talent there boy, don't let it go to waste."_ Is what he said and Naruto took it to heart. Ever since he first managed to summon the fire he felt a connection to it, it felt easy to control it. He could just think of its existence and it would appear, he could just wish for it to vanish and it would.

He didn't need to chant, he didn't need to call upon it, all he needed to do is think it exists, all he needed to do is desire for it to move, change shapes or obey him. It did everything he wanted, but for him it just wasn't enough.

He believed that if he worked with spells and learned a handful of them, or even more, he could do so much more. He was happy to know that his friends supported him on his little 'quest' or as he liked to call it 'experiment'.

In truth, it was an experiment, he wanted to know if he could control spells like he controls the fire. He wanted to know if he could bend the spell to his own will and make so that he would just wish for it to happen and it would.

In theory, it proved easy, however, in practice it was at a whole different level. The blond couldn't understand it, it was easy to control and manipulate fire but spells seemed to be at a whole different level.

Makarov tried to reassure the blond that everything takes time, he knew that himself, there was nothing that could be earned by doing absolutely nothing. You had to work for everything that you desired, but it still felt like it was taking too much time to actually complete something, it was stressful to say at least.

He was shaken out of his thoughts as he heard someone approach, he looked behind him and saw Erza sitting there with a stoic look on her face. Most likely she had gotten in a fight with Mirajane once again and lost – this time.

"What's wrong Erza?" he asked with a small smile as the girl sat next to him and 'huffed'.

"Nothing…" she mumbled as the blond looked at her incredulously. Over the years he had gotten to know her very well, he knew when she was lying and he knew that she was always hurting inside.

No matter how hard he tried to break the shell around her and find out what was hurting her so much he never had any success in that matter, at times it felt really hopeless. But he wouldn't give up on that, he would find out what hurts her and make it go away – after all, what were friends for?

"That doesn't sound very convincing." He said as he looked down at his scrolls and started rolling them up.

The girl stood silent for a couple more minutes before talking. "Its Gray…" she said with a low voice.

"Gray?" he asked before his face scrunched into an angry look. "That bastard, I'll kick his ass if he hurt you!" he declared as he stood up and prepared to leave to find said boy.

He stopped however as he felt her grab his shirt. Naruto looked down at her, she had her hand extended towards him, holding his shirt tightly in her fist, yet she was still looking down at the ground.

"He…did nothing wrong…he is right…" she said with a low voice as the blond turned towards her, her grip on his lessened until it completely faded.

"But…" she said as she turned to look at him "…I'm afraid…" she whispered, a few tears dripping from her left eye.

Naruto dropped his scrolls and kneeled down next to his friend, he gently embraced her and listened to her sniffing and trying to hold back her cry.

"What's hurting you?" he asked "I know something's hurting you…can't you tell me?" he asked.

Her grip on his tightened as she shook her head furiously, the blond frowned sadly at that. He pulled away from her and looked at her in the eyes, a smile appeared on his face.

"Then…I promise you this." He said as Erza looked up at him, whenever he made a promise, he kept it. Everyone knew that. "When I grow up, I'll be with you." He told her with a large grin as her eyes widened and a small blush appeared on her cheeks.

"What do you mean?" she asked curiously.

His brows furrowed before they relaxed and a smile adorned his face. "That way, I will always protect, I can always make you happy and I will make all the things that hurt you go away." He told her with a large smile as she processed what the blond told her.

She started sniffing again and grabbed him in an embrace, crying in his chest as the blond gently stroke her back trying to calm her down. They never noticed the pair of eyes looking at them in sadness.


	3. Chapter 3

**Note:** Alright, this is the last sappy chapter, after this we get on to serious stuff

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 3**

There were only six months left until his birthday and things weren't too bright. To say that he had upset Mirajane and Erza was too little said, they were down right furious with him. He had taken his obsession to a whole new level, having the fire walk with him most of the time.

His mother's birthday had been a month ago and ever since then, not only did he lock himself in his room but when he did come out he came out with the flame in tow. No matter what people said he wouldn't dispel it, for most it was unnerving, for a few it was downright scary. Because they knew that the blond was losing his grip on reality.

It started ever since he learned to control the flames, but after he managed to shape them to perfect replicas of anyone…things went downhill fast. He ignored anyone that tried to make him stop, got in arguments with people over this and even managed to break a bond.

Said bond was patched back together over the course of time, but at times you could still see the cracks in it. He wasn't happy with what he did, to think that he managed to break his bond with Natsu of all people, for months he didn't even spare a glance towards him, no matter how hard he tried to repair the damage and apologize.

When he finally succeeded, he thought that everything would revert back to normal, but fate had other plans for him. While things around him did revert back to normal, he did not follow the flow. He stayed back, lost in his own world and continued to lose himself from those around him.

He slowly became detached from them all until the guild master himself started believing that they had all lost hope in him and were trying to treat the blond as a shadow of the past. Not that the blond minded or even seem to care, he was already lost in his own world.

Makarov did his best talking with the blond; he managed to pull him out of his world, if only for a bit and make him realize what he was doing. The blond understood, or so Makarov liked to believe, it was only later that he realized that the talk he had with the blond didn't do much and by then it would be too late already.

There were only a handful of people that still tried their best and never gave up on the blond. The majority already saw him as a lost cause, especially after the numerous failed attempts to set him straight.

Makarov himself was confronted with a dangerous decision. He knew of someone that could put the blond with his feet back on the ground, but if word got out of what happened it would make life too harsh for the blond in the future. He also didn't want to receive orders to terminate the blond's contract with the guild. The council didn't understand how things worked, it's what Makarov said, and for that reason he didn't want the word to spread about the blond.

Lisanna, Mirajane and Erza kept trying to help the blond pull himself together. For Lisanna it was due to the fact that she saw him like an older brother, she was younger than him by at least a year and Naruto had helped her a lot in the past.

The blond always helped those around him, not bothering to ask anything in return and not wanting anything in return. But they felt that this time it was him that needed help and if the others wouldn't help him then they alone could.

"It's impossible; the brat's already lost it." Luxus, no matter how much he hated saying that he knew that it was impossible to bring the blond out of his imaginary world. He couldn't really understand what made the blond so attached to his mother that he would do anything to actually have her next to him.

Despite his words they still tried, the teen felt it was hopeless and useless at the same time. There were moments when he gave it a shot as well, but nothing came out of that, he had been ignored, plain and simple. It was like talking to a brick wall, your words would just bounce right back at you not reaching the one on the other side.

Mirajane felt her anger building up inside of her once again, she knew that sooner or later Erza would snap as well. She could see her holding back her frustration from reaching the blond, when talking to him she tried to play it nice, she tried to sound nice like there was nothing wrong in the first place.

But slowly, that was crumbling. Mira tried her best to keep her emotions in check; anger, frustration, sadness and worry. She was worried for the boy she had been crushing for three years, she was sad for the fact that his heart was still in pain over the incident when he was eight, she was frustrated for the fact that he couldn't come to terms with what happened and she was angered over the fact that he would use his own powers to lock himself in a imaginary world.

She was angered by the fact that he just didn't seem to want to understand that there were people here that were worried for him, that wanted him back – to revert to his own normal self.

Shaking her head Mira looked at the blond sitting at the bar and playing with a crystal amulet. She rarely saw that, it was a memento from his mother, he rarely showed it in public fearing that someone might steal it. On the days he would actually carry it with him he wouldn't let anyone hold it, let alone touch it. He was almost paranoid about that item, she was ashamed by herself, but it sickened her to see something like that.

In her mind, it brought him pain, she wanted it to be gone so that the blond wouldn't suffer anymore. But she steeled herself, it would only hurt him further if she took it away and hid it, he would frantically search for it and become his new addiction…or something else might happen, something worse. She was too afraid to even think of what might happen.

Mira turned towards her sister and nodded at her, at least for his birthday the blond would return to reality and then they would try and make him realize he needs to stay there. They would have a talk with him on that day and hopefully get through him, if that wouldn't work, she was afraid what would happen to the blond.

She then turned to the other side of the bar and saw Erza sitting at a table, alone. She seemed to be in deep thought; if Mira had to take a guess then she was more than sure the red head was thinking about the gift she planned to buy the blond.

It was common knowledge in the guild that the blond had been eyeing a very expensive short sword from _'Armifer'_. It wasn't your normal short sword, it was designated for Fire Mages, meant to boost their overall spell power and also give them new spells – spells that could only be created through the use of said sword.

Erza had been planning for weeks on buying that sword for the blond, she hoped that by buying what he wanted he would stop his addiction to re-create his mother's image and slowly open his heart.

Erza had also tried teaching Naruto the art of swordsmanship, just for that reason. It came for the blond like second nature, he easily learned the basics and advanced steps and when he reached the expert level Erza was completely shocked that the blond would not only master the steps in a month, but he would be able to stand toe to toe with her – even if it was for a very short amount of time – in a spar.

Mira and Erza put aside their little war for the blond just to get him to open up and get over his past. They hoped that they would succeed and then things would actually return to normal in the guild.

**xXx**

Three months were left until his birthday, even though he had started getting a grip on reality once more the blond realized that the damage had already been done. He could hear it in their whispers and he could see it in their eyes. They doubted him and his sanity now, he knew that, he was sure of that.

Worst of all, people seemed to be less interested in talking to him now, he couldn't place it but he felt like they had completely lost hope in him.

He looked at the ceiling sadly, he had to figure out something, he had to overcome his past. He couldn't afford to live in it anymore, it just showed he was weak and his mother would never be proud of him then. His eyes narrowed as he violently shook his head, he needed to stop thinking about that.

As he looked back at the ceiling he felt himself getting tired, in mere seconds he fell asleep only to wake up outside the guild in the middle of the night.

He jumped on his feet and looked around frantically, something was amiss. There was no sound around him, the river that could be usually heard at night made no sound, there were also a few people up at this hour, he could see lights in the windows but no movement or sound.

Then he heard something from in front of him, from the guild. The lights were on. He slowly walked towards the guild and peered inside, it was empty, there was no one here. Curiously he walked inside and as he reached the center of the bar the doors slammed shut scaring him.

He laughed nervously as he looked around. "This isn't funny guys…" he said with a shaken voice as fire burst in front of him.

He watched as the fire took a shape he thought he recognized. "Mother?" he asked as he looked at the flare, a sinister chuckle echoed around him.

"**No…"** a deep voice was the reply as the fire took the shape of a fox, the size of a dog.

"Who…are you?" he stuttered as the voice started laughing, echoing around him. Yet when he looked at the fox he couldn't see its mouth, it was like it had no mouth to begin with.

"…**here is a riddle boy…"** the voice echoed around him as the blond looked around, turning with his back at the fox.

"Riddle?" he asked confused and a little angry. "Just tell me your name!" he demanded as the voice started laughing once more "And what have you done with everyone?"

The voice laughed for a good five minutes before its words echoed around the blond. **"I've existed since the dawn of time, my number is nine, my power alone is feared throughout the world…I am the strongest of the nine…I am…"**

"Kyuubi…" the blond whispered as he turned his head slightly towards the fox sitting on the bar. Its face started shimmering before a large, toothy grin appeared.

"**Not bad…"** the fox replied as its eyes fixed with the blond's. **"Though I must say…I am not that good at rhymes…or riddles for that matter…"** he laughed.

Naruto took a step back in shock as he tried to find something defend himself with. The fox eyed the blond and his every move with amusement in its eyes, for the blond it was the most terrifying experience to be standing in front of the demon that had nearly crushed his previous home.

"Why are you here?" he inquired shivering. "Where is everyone? What have you done to them!" he shouted as the fox's grin widened.

"**Why…we are in your mind boy…as for what I've done to everyone? Hmm…"** the fox seemed to ponder for a second **"…nothing…for now…"** he replied with a sick grin as he jumped off the bar and started walking towards him.

"No…stay back!" the blond shouted crawling backwards, trying to get as far away as possible from the fox.

The grin started fading; his face started shimmering until an angry look appeared. The fox started growling, showing its fangs as its nine tails appeared behind it and started shaking violently.

"**You boy…you've caused me so much trouble!"** he shouted as the ground around the blond started shaking **"Have you no idea how much you damaged your mind?"** he shouted as bits of the world around the blond started crumbling revealing a strange violet vortex in the cracks.

"What are you doing?" shouted the blond frightened as the fox continued to growl.

"**Me?"** he asked angrily. **"I've been fixing ****your**** mistakes! ****Your**** errors!" **he shouted as the blond tried to move away further from the fox only to hit the large doors with his back. He tried to open them and run away. But as soon as he opened them he nearly fell in the large vortex.

With a frightened look he turned back to face the fox. **"Fixing organs is one thing!" **he growled out moving closer to the blond **"But fixing ones mind! Do you know how hard that is?"** he roared as the blond nearly fell on his back and into the vortex.

"**In all my years of imprisonment, I've never had such a weak host! You are a disgrace!"** he shouted as he lounged towards the blond only for the blond to duck and roll under the fox.

He saw as the demon fell into the vortex and was sucked by it. Taking a deep breath he leaned on the table behind him. He brought his hand to his chest to calm his heart down, he needed to find a way out of here.

"**Comfortable?"** he heard the fox, with a scared look on his face he turned his head and looked behind him. He found himself leaning against a grinning fox.

"Ah!" he shouted in fright as he jumped away and crashed on the ground. He could hear the fox laugh mockingly as he scrambled back on his feet and started running upstairs to his room.

"**Run as much as you like! But I will find you no matter where you go weakling!"** the foxes voice echoed all around him as he ran up the stairs, he thought he could hear it running up the stairs after him but he was too afraid to look behind and verify.

As he reached his room he crashed into the door opening it and then slammed it shut. He locked it and placed a chair against the doorknob before jumping in his bed and pulling the covers over his head. He started praying to whatever God was listening to let him wake up from the nightmare.

"**She was never here to begin with…"** he heard the fox as the sheets were pulled away from him and he found himself staring at his mother's body, only that the head was that of the fox. **"..,get it in your mind! She is DEAD!"** he shouted as the body dissipated in air and the fox appeared in front of him.

"No!" the blond shouted moving his hands towards his ears. The fox shot forward, its front paws pinning his hands to the side of his head. He struggled trying to pry himself free, but nothing seemed to work. He looked up at the fox with fear in his eyes, it was then that he noticed the fox seemed to be in pain and electricity moved around its body.

"**How dare you disgrace the name Uzumaki?" **he demanded **"Your mother was stronger! Your great-grandmother was stronger! You! You on the other hand are WEAK!"** he roared as he bit on the blond's arm making him scream in pain and the fox howl in pain as well.

"Stop it!" the blond shouted desperately as the fox moved its head towards his face and stared in his eyes.

"**Wake up boy, wake up and smell the ashes…"** he said in a low voice **"…move from the past, live the present…or we both DIE!"** he shouted as he opened his mouth and moved his head towards the blond.

"Ah!" Naruto bolted up in his bed, sweating and panting. He brought his hand up to his chest to calm his heart and looked around. He jumped and shouted in fright once more when he saw the fox next to him.

"Naruto!" he was slapped by the fox, he blinked and realized it was Gray standing in front of him with a worried look in his eyes. "Naruto! What happened?" he asked as the blond looked down at his feet, still panting and with a look of sheer terror on his face.

"Nothing…it's nothing…" he stuttered as Gray frowned. He didn't like that answer, it wasn't a every day occurrence for the blond to wake up in the night screaming as if someone was trying to kill him.

"Naruto…it's not ok…what happened?" he asked as the blond tried to find an answer. He couldn't tell them that the demon inside of him talked with him, they didn't even know he had a demon sealed inside of him to begin with. If they found out, he didn't know what would happen, he was too afraid to think about that.

"A nightmare…just a nightmare…" he replied trying to lean back in bed to fall sleep, yet Gray wouldn't let him, he wasn't satisfied with the answer.

"What kind of nightmare?" he asked "About what?" he asked again not giving the blond a chance to answer the first question.

It took him a minute to think, he didn't really know what to tell the boy. "A fox…it was a nightmare about a … fox…" he replied weakly as he started shaking once again.

It seemed like Gray bought it as he nodded and stood up. "Try not to think about it." He advised the blond who nodded back. Gray then turned around and walked back to his bed mumbling 'what kind of nightmare is that with a fox in it?'

If Naruto hadn't been so frightened about his first encounter with the Kyuubi, he would have laughed at that question and tried to joke. But now…he was too afraid to even move from the spot he was in.

As he tried to close his eyes and fall asleep he heard the laughter that would haunt him all night and the demon's voice. **"She is dead…get that through your mind or else we die…"**

**xXx**

For the next three months the blond had been acting strange in everyone's opinion. They were glad he no longer had the fire follow him around and that the life returned to his eyes, but this time, the look of sheer terror and confusion in his eyes made them worry even further.

Gray told them about the nightmare, Makarov had gone into a panic as he heard it was a nightmare about a fox, they wondered what connection the fox had with the nightmare to make their master so afraid. That day Makarov had spent it with Naruto to clarify things, to say he was shocked of what he had learned was an understanding.

He made the blond promise he would keep quiet about this until they figured out what the fox meant by both of them dying. If there was some sort of impending doom for them then why didn't Kyuubi just tell them what was going to happen? Makarov just couldn't explain this, he had never met nor talked with the fox to understand it, he only heard stories from Minato and Kushina but never actually met the fox in person.

When the others asked him what he learned he kept quiet, much to their annoyance. The fact that the blond was avoiding everyone and keeping to himself didn't bode well with anyone in the guild.

Ever since that nightmare he never smiled again, all his smiles were forced, Erza and Mira knew this for sure – after all, they had been the closest ones to the blond ever since he joined Fairy Tail when they were young.

Naruto for his part was too caught up in his thoughts to see what was happening around him. He was trying to understand what the fox was telling him, ever since his encounter with the fox if he tried to summon the fire nothing would happen. It was like the fox had taken away from him his ability to summon fire and control it.

He didn't tell this to anyone, he was afraid what would happen if they found out. He had to find an answer to his problem by himself and as fast as possible. Yet as the days past he couldn't find any kind of answer. Trying to get in touch with the fox once again didn't help at all, it was like the demon was ignoring him.

At nights he could still hear its voice, saying the same words over and over again. It angered it, it annoyed him that he couldn't understand what the fox was saying. It didn't help that his encounter with the fox had turned into a nightmare and every night it kept on replaying and replaying.

It was like the Gods were playing a sick joke on him.

It was only a month before his birthday that he finally managed to make contact with the fox again. Yet, he couldn't quite call it a success, the fox had did all the talking, every time he tried to ask a question or utter a word no sounds came from him and the fox didn't even seem to acknowledge the fact that he was trying to speak with it.

"**Do you wish for your powers to return?"** it asked him, he tried to question it, to find out why it took his powers away but nothing came out of his mouth, it tried to make gestures but it was like the fox was oblivious to them.

"**I will return them…you will need them…however, you're still not ready…"** it told him, he couldn't understand what it was trying to say. He felt warm, he felt himself entangled by the flames, yet the flames didn't burn him, they were his. His power had been returned to him.

"**Your mind is still in turmoil…that I cannot accept…fix it, or I will fix it…"** the fox growled out, somehow the blond realized that he wouldn't want the fox to fix whatever was broken about him. The thought that the demon would take bits of his mind and replace them with something else didn't bode well with him.

He tried to nod, to let it know that he would do as it requested, but the fox was gone before he could do so. He woke up that night sweating and panting again, yet this time he had not woken up half the guild.

For the coming weeks he thought of ways to fix whatever was broken, he tried to figure out what was wrong with him that needed to be fixed. He never realized that he was ignoring those around him until it was too late.

It had been three months, or maybe even more, since he last spoke to anyone; especially Erza. When they met on the hallways of their dorms they bumped into each other. The blond dusted himself and muttered an apology before walking away like nothing happened.

The girl stopped him in his tracks calling his name, the tone in her voice made the blond freeze and lose track of whatever he was thinking. Then looking into her eyes and seeing the look of disappointment and anger pained him more than a thousand swords stabbing him through the heart.

It started like a – somewhat – normal conversation, yet in the end they ended up yelling at each other, in their mind they were the ones right over the argument and the other one was wrong. It was later that the blond realized Erza had been right all along, he needed to pull himself together, he needed to realize that there were people waiting for him in the real world, people that needed him.

Yet on that day, he was too absorbed in his thoughts that he couldn't stand listening to anyone and ended up hurting one of the girls that had always cared for him. It pained him when he saw her leave with tears in her eyes, or at least one eye. He knew then that everything was gone; everything that he had worked with on his relationship with Erza was broken in half and gone.

He was still too young to drown his sorrows in alcohol, so he did the next best thing. He spent most of the days at the bar, far away from everyone, rarely talking to anyone. Erza never came down from her room, or if she did Naruto never saw it. He had been there most of the time, rarely leaving.

"Naruto?" he heard Mira call for him. Tomorrow was his birthday, yet he didn't feel happy about that, he felt sad, he felt angry – not at those around him, but at himself – and most importantly, he felt a like a complete jackass.

"Yea…" he answered while looking at the memento from his mother, he started twirling around his fingers and playing with it, to keep his mind distracted from any bad thoughts that might pass his mind.

"Maybe you should check on her…I'm worried." She said as the blond stopped playing with the amulet for a second before resuming his act.

"I can't…" he replied weakly making the girl frown and lean towards him over the bar.

"Naruto…you're her friend as well, sure you had an argument, but who doesn't?" she asked as the blond lowered his head.

"She said…she doesn't want to see me ever again…" he replied as Mirajane shook her head slightly, she knew that already, she had heard Erza shout that to the blond before storming to her room and slamming the door shut.

"She didn't mean it…trust me…" he said but it fell to deaf ears as the blond started staring intently at the amulet in his hands muttering several words.

With a sigh Mira moved away from the blond and resumed her work, she hoped that by the time she was done the blond would be able to actually talk normally with her and get over it.

She didn't have that luck, by the time it was night and the bar closed nothing changed. The blond was still in the same spot, with bangs under his eyes and still staring at the amulet like he was in some sort of trance.

"Naruto…" Mira started as she waited for him to acknowledge her. "…come on…you can't stay like that forever…" she said but there was still no reply, she sighed heavily as she started thinking what to do.

"Leave me alone…" he finally replied as she looked towards him "…mother…mother will help me…" he whispered in a pained voice as Mira's eyes widened, she felt like something snapped inside of her. She lowered her head and tightened her fists, it was always about his mother, it was always about that.

She didn't want him to obsess about her anymore; she didn't want him to suffer about her anymore. She glared at the amulet; if that amulet was hidden then maybe the blond would actually be brought back with his feet on the ground. With a quick move she snatched the memento from his hands and moved back.

The blond's head snapped up as he looked at Mirajane with surprise and shock in his eyes. He then glared towards her and extended his hand. "Give it back." He growled as the girl glared at him darkly.

"Why?" she asked in a pained voice. "So that you can go back in your own world?" she shouted gaining everyone's attention.

"That does not concern you!" he shouted back as he tried to snatch the amulet from her hands. "Give it back!" he demanded as the girl dodged the boy's efforts.

"No Naruto!" she retorted flinging her hands around, she was furious. "This is only bringing you pain and pushing you away from us! I can't stand it anymore!" she shouted as the blond tried to jump over the counter and grab it.

"You don't know anything about my pain! Give it back!" he demanded as the girl slapped him on the face making him pull back in shock.

"Don't know anything?" she asked as tears threatened to spill out of her eyes. "Do you have any idea how much it hurts us to see you like that?" she questioned as the blond started trembling and clenching his fists. "Do you think it makes us happy to see you suffer like that?" she questioned.

"It's the only thing I have left from mother!" he shouted looking at her, it was like he never heard her words to begin with "Give it back!" he launched towards her surprising Mirajane.

She threw her hands behind her and slipped on the ground. Her fists opened and the amulet flew from her hands hitting the wall, then the ground and shattering in the process. Every activity stopped at that, the blond looked at the scene with wide eyes, fear and confusion etched in his blue orbs.

Mira held back her gasp as she looked at the remains of the once beautiful amulet. She looked at the petrified blond and stood up. "Naruto…I…" she started only to step on a piece of the shattered amulet, a crunch was heard and the blond flinched.

She stopped moving as he blond lowered his head and turned around. "Wait!" she shouted "Naruto!" the blond stopped for a second and mumbled a few words. He shook his head and continued walking.

"Leave me alone…" he whispered just enough for her to hear, the pain in his voice froze her in place. She let her anger get the best of her and in the process she had destroyed the only memento the blond had. She bit her lower lip as she felt like crying, how was she going to fix this?

**xXx**

The next day everyone was gathered in the bar, the blond had left in the morning, probably going into town. They didn't check, after what happened last night they wanted to give him some space, even Gray left him alone that night and spent the night some place else.

Mirajane was still overcoming her shock; she planned to make up to the blond today, on his birthday. She made sure all preparations were in check and that everything was in order. The girl looked towards the stairs and saw Erza there with a solemn look, in her hands was her gift for the blond, all wrapped up. She shook her head and walked back upstairs.

Mira smiled slightly, she knew that Erza would come back in a few minutes to either help out or present her gift to the blond. She looked around admiring the decorations and the feast prepared for the blond, she looked back at her sister as she brought out the cake and set it on the table in the middle.

Moments later Erza walked down the stairs and blended in the crowd, she kept the gift in her hands, most likely she would hand it to the blond personally. As the clock turned eight PM they turned towards the door, waiting patiently for the blond to return, Makarov was also missing so most likely he was bringing the blond back.

Just then the doors opened, they all smiled waiting to see the blond, yet it was only Makarov that walked inside, closing the doors behind him. He looked at their confused faces and then at the decorations and the cake, the candles were lit.

"Blow those candles off…and take the decorations away…" he stated glumly as he started walking to the second floor.

Everyone looked confused at that, even Luxus moved towards the edge of the railing and looked down in confusion.

"But…master…its Naruto's birthday today." Lisanna said with a low voice, not understanding why they had to pack up everything after they worked so hard on it.

Makarov stopped walking and looked down at the ground replying. "Naruto's gone." He told them shocking everyone "He left this morning…I don't think he will return any time soon." He told them.

A resonating clang was heard as they all turned towards Erza, her eyes were wide in shock and horror, her gift for the blond was laying on the ground. She was trembling as she brought her hands to her face and turned around, dashing up the stairs.

Mira didn't handle it any better as she collapsed on her knees. "It's my fault…" she whispered to herself as she lowered her head and started sobbing. "I'm sorry…I'm sorry…" she repeated before she jumped on her feet and started running towards the door.

"Mira!" shouted Makarov as he moved to grab her. "Nee-chan!" Lisanna called out running after her with Natsu, Gray and Elfman.

The girl collapsed on the ground just a few feet away from the guild. "I'm sorry!" she shouted while sobbing "Please…don't leave!" but it was too late alright, the blond was far away from the guild by now, far away from the place he spent half of his childhood.

Makarov looked at the girl sadly; he then looked towards the horizon. "_Naruto…please return soon…"_

On the train bound for Bosco a blond boy looked at the moon with sadness in his eyes. _"I'm sorry…but I have to do this…"_ he thought as he looked down at the ground letting a few tears drip from his eyes _"Happy…birthday…"_


	4. Chapter 4

**Note: **Ah…I seem to have updated faster…don't expect this to become a habit of mine (you know I'm bad at updating – sadly). Anyway, as I promised, the sappy parts are mostly gone, I will not immediately start with the Fairy Tail plot (and when Lucy joins) instead I opted to write a few chapters that shows how Naruto gains his future strength and what he does during his leave. Enjoy

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 4**

The blond groaned as the Horse-Led carriage bumped into the holes on the road. He had been in Bosco for a year already, doing various jobs for various people. He made sure not to let them know he was a Fairy Tail member, just in case the jobs he took were against the law imposed by the magic council. To those that he was one hundred percent sure that they were honest jobs he let the people know he was a member of Fairy Tail, but kept his name a secret.

Since he had no nickname the people had no idea what to call him, he dismissed all the names that they kept giving them. If he wanted a nickname he would choose it. Besides, who would want a strange nickname like _'Fire-Bender'_? Who in their right minds would name themselves like that?

Naruto sighed as he tried to think of something else, he looked in the distance. He could vaguely see the Volcano Masetech. His destination was the town of Logimas located right at the base of said Volcano.

A mage in the bar of Bosco's capital told him there was something amiss there; the villagers wanted a strong mage to kill a demon residing in the Volcano. So far all the mages that had tried said mission vanished in the depths of the imposing Volcano. Some said they were eaten alive by the demon, others said they fell to their deaths in the molten lava; it was after all an active Volcano.

"So sonny…" the man taking him to the town started, an old man in his late seventies if the blond was correct. "…what business do you have in little Logimas?" he asked as the blond leaned in the carriage and looked at the sky, analyzing the clouds.

"There's a job to take out some sort of demon…pays well, need the money and it sounds interesting." He replied as the man started humming.

"Honestly…I'd rather avoid such a mission…if that was me at least." He told the blond who chuckled slightly.

"I'm more of an adventurous type." He told the man with a small laugh, said man grumbled something about 'suicidal mages' making the blond chuckle even further. Maybe he was suicidal, maybe he wasn't. It was just one of the reasons he was out here, away from home. To get in touch with reality once again and to put his past behind him, and what better way of doing that then to help others in their time of need and get good money out of it as well?

Over the one year since he left he had slowly adjusted to the lifestyle he forced himself in, he couldn't complain. It could have been worse, but he did better than he would have expected. He was starting to forget about his past, he slowly started opening his eyes and seeing the world for what it was – for the bad and for the good.

He fondly thought back of his mother, but this time he didn't delve in the past like before. There were moments when he thought about writing letters to send back home, to let everyone know he was alright, to apologize to them but he needed to complete his journey before he could actually do that.

He wanted to return home as a new person, as a reformed man. He wanted to make them proud and not have them worry for him anymore. Mira was right, Erza was right…he couldn't let them down, not now, not ever.

"We will reach Logimas in an hour…" the man said as the blond smiled and nodded letting the old man know he had heard him.

He listened to the world around him and fell asleep with a content smile on his face; he could rest up a bit before the trials ahead.

**xXx**

"Sonny…" the blond slowly opened his eyes and took a deep breath, stretching. "…we're here…" the old man said as the blond looked around. They were in the market district of the town; the old man was setting up shop to barter his goods. There were very few stores in Logimas and most goods came from farmers that traded them for the right price.

"Thank you mister." The blond said with a bow as he handed him a small pouch with a thousand jewels. The man looked at the bag amazed, he never expected the mage to pay him, he had picked up the mage on the road to the town, doing a right deed and helping him reach the town faster. If the boy was to walk to town it would have taken him a day at best.

The man wanted to ask the blond why he paid so much, but the blond had already vanished in the crowd. A small smile appeared on the old man's face as he silently thanked the generous mage and continued his work.

Said mage was currently making his way to the center of the town. After asking a group of townspeople where the town hall was they directed him to the center telling him it was a large building behind a park with a fountain in the middle of said park.

As the blond walked through the streets he could see several townspeople were on the edge, he heard whispers among them how another mage vanished in the depths of the Volcano.

Now the blond was even more interested in the Volcano and whatever demon was hiding in there. He only hoped he wouldn't have to go down too much to reach his target, going in a Volcano was suicidal, even if he was a fire mage and had certain immunity to fire. This was lava, the heat from it was more intense, it would tire him faster than anything else.

As he reached the park he looked for the town hall. He spotted the large building across the park, it didn't look like much but that was to be expected, this was a small town with a population barely above ten thousand. Naruto slowly made his way through the park, smiling as he past several children that were playing there.

Reaching the large door he bowed towards the guard and let him know he wanted to talk to the mayor. The guard nodded and opened the door telling the blond to walk up the stairs to the last floor.

Naruto did as he was told, he had to admit, he was impressed by the decorations in the building. Paintings adorned the walls, the walls were painted in a brilliant mix of red and brown and the ceiling had a deep blue color. Everything looked expensive here, he wondered how they built this structure and decorated like this, it must have taken them years to complete this.

Upon reaching the last floor he looked around for the door to the mayor's office, he was surprised the last floor had only one door meaning that it was dedicated to the mayor's office alone. He walked towards the door and knocked several times, he heard a deep voice telling him to step inside and did as he was told.

Upon entering the office and closing the door behind him Naruto bowed towards the mayor and looked around the room. The walls and ceiling were painted in the exact same color like everywhere else in the building, paintings on the walls and carpets on the floor. He was surprised the carpets weren't that exquisite like the rest of the decorations.

"Everything bought for the Mayor's Hall is done from my money, or the generous donations of the people…" the mayor said as if reading the blond's mind.

He looked up towards the mayor who was sitting behind his desk and studying the blond; a man in his mid thirties with a shaved beard, green eyes and brown hair. He was dressed in the typical clothing for mayors which consisted of a black suit with a red bandana going down from his right shoulder towards his left hip. Other than that the man seemed like a humble person, unlike other mayors who had different accessories – were it cigars or jewels – this man had none at all.

"May I ask what business you have in Logimas, or why you have come to see me?" he inquired as the blond nodded.

"I've come following the word of a demon located in Masetech…" he noticed the man's eyes widen at that "…I've heard rumors of how mages died trying to slay the beast and that you were still looking for a mage capable of bringing it down."

The mayor sighed sadly as he heard that, he stood up and turned towards the window looking at the Volcano, a shiver ran down his spine as he gazed towards it. He then turned towards the blond with a sad look in his eyes as he shook his head.

"I thank you for coming all this way…but…I'm afraid I will have to decline your help." He said as the blond titled his head to the side curiously.

"Tell me…why is it that you wish to go down there and try to defeat the monster?" he asked as the blond immediately answered.

"I wish to help your people…I wish to become stronger and I need money." He replied without stopping to think or take a breath.

The man smiled a little at the first part of his answer and then shook his head. He walked back to his seat and sat down looking towards the blond. "I thank you for that…however…I'd feel bad sending someone so young down there."

The blond frowned at that, this was the first time someone doubted him because of his age; or was too afraid to send him on a mission. "Even so sir, I assure you my skills are top of the notch, despite my age."

The man nodded with a smile. "I never underestimated your skills, its just…" he paused there looking towards the ground "…so many mages lost their lives there already…twice your age…they surely had more experience than you."

Now the blond understood where this was going and frowned deeper. "I understand…but would you rather wait for another mage to arrive? I've heard mage's talking that they are starting to stay clear of this mission, it won't be long until no one will dare try and come here." He told the man hoping to get through to him and get this job.

The man seemed to ponder over that, he could see he was having a battle inside his mind over what to do. "I assure you…even if I die, I die for a just cause." The blond said as the man lowered his head further, maybe it wasn't the right thing to say, he cursed his mouth, he really needed to think up a speech of sorts before meeting his clients else he would fuck it up and lose the jobs.

They stood in silence for minutes, the only sounds they could hear were the laughter of the children in the park and the large clock's ticking. Naruto never moved his gaze from the man who seemed to be in deep thought.

Finally, the man looked up at the blond with a frown. "Very well…if you really feel that you can do this…" he said with a weak voice, Naruto realized that he didn't want to have his death on his conscious. After all, he was still a child, to send a child to his death was too much for the majority of clients. There were those that didn't care of course, they just wanted the job done, didn't care how it was done or who died.

Naruto bowed deeply, showing his respect towards the man. "Rest assure, I will put an end to whatever is terrorizing your town." He said as the turned around and walked out of the office, leaving the man to his own thoughts and worries.

When the blond reached the first floor he walked over to one of the employees of the City Hall and asked her for a map towards the Volcano and if she knew of an entrance.

The woman looked like she had seen a ghost when the blond asked that, her face was deathly pale. She asked him if the mayor actually let him do the job and he acknowledged.

She was doubtful of that, however she went on and explained the blond how he could enter the Volcano. There was no entrance at the base of it, he would have to climb up to the top on a path that was made long ago by whoever lived here before.

The blond asked her about the path, apparently there was another civilization that lived here long ago, it's believed they sacrificed people in the Volcano to their God. Or at least that is what the archeologists said after spending a few years here digging for tombs or remains of the ancient civilization.

The young mage wondered about that, he wondered if maybe the demon was a product of said sacrifices or if the ones performing the sacrifices were mages of a Dark Guild. Yet the woman told him that the demon had always been there, he only started acting up six years ago, it was like it had slumbered until then.

Bidding the woman farewell the blond took the map she gave him and made his way towards the Volcano, before he even left the town a lot of people had gathered at the exit, apparently waiting for him to wish him luck. Word seemed to traveled fast here.

He was amazed at how many came to wish him luck; he gave them a reassuring smile and continued his journey towards the tip of the Volcano.

**xXx**

"Shit…" the blond swore as he looked at the large chunk of rock fall the lava down below. "…that…was not a good idea." He whispered to himself as he moved slowly along the wall with his back. He tried his best not to look down, the intense heat coming from down below was enough to make him lose focus, to tire him and lose balance. He didn't need to get a fear of heights now.

He looked up taking a deep breath, it was night. By the time he had reached the tip of the Volcano the sun had set. Going down into the Volcano proved to be tougher said than done, he had nearly fallen from the ledges at least ten times in a row. His heart was beating at abnormal rate and he felt dizzy. But he couldn't stop now, he told them he would succeed and promised he would always succeed in everything he did. He pressed on forward.

Naruto looked around and saw a large platform, taking a deep breath he jumped towards it landing in the middle. He took a deep breath and grinned, his grin vanished however as he heard a crack. His eyes widened as he saw the platform cracking and falling apart. He jumped back on his feet and ran towards the wall, he jumped in the last second as the platform fell from under his feet towards the pool of lava.

He crashed in the wall grabbing whatever he could. The blond tried to pull himself up, he moved his right hand up and grabbed another rock, he moved his left hand and grabbed another. The blond looked down at his feet and started hitting the wall until he managed to secure his feet in a small hole.

Naruto looked around, there was no other platform, he looked down wondering how far he needed to descend until he reached the so called down, or whatever was down there. He hoped that the Volcano hadn't been the one acting up for those past six years, cause if it was it would mean everything had been a false alarm and the Volcano was just on the brink of erupting. That however didn't bode well with the blond.

His eyes widened as he felt his right hand slipping, he moved to grab another rock however that one broke as soon as he grabbed it. With wide eye his body moved backwards and he started his descend towards the center of the Volcano.

Naruto frantically looked around for something to grab, it didn't matter how sharp it was, he just needed something to halt his descend. His eyes rested on a rather sharp rock towards which he was falling. He grimaced as he turned his body around and moved his hands towards it.

The blond grit his teeth in pain as his descend came to an abrupt halt, with one hand he was holding on to the ledge and the other was dangling around his body. He narrowed his eyes, looking for some place to jump; a small cavern grabbed his attention, not far from him. He looked up and moved his free hand up, grabbing the ledge. Turning towards the cavern he started moving forward and backwards to gain speed.

Finally, he let go of the ledge and flung himself towards the cavern, crashing in it. He sighed as he felt the ground under his feet, his relief however was short lived as the ground started shaking and the floor underneath him shattered, once more he started his descend, however, this time it was towards the darkness.

With a loud 'thud' his body made contact with ground, everything was blurry and dark, there was only a peck of light coming from his right. With a groan the blond pushed himself up and nearly fell back on the ground. He grabbed his arm and started walking towards the light.

His eyes widened as he found himself stepping back into the Volcano, only that this time it seemed like he was at the very bottom. The strangest thing however was the fact that he wasn't suffocating from the heat, it was actually bearable, like he was at the tip of the Volcano and not the very bottom.

He saw a large, round platform in the middle of it and a path leading towards it. Slowly making his way towards it he noticed several bones littered around him, even a burned corpse that was missing its lower part, it seemed like whoever that was fell in the lava and tried to pull himself out of it.

Naruto grimaced at the sight; he stopped in the middle of the platform and looked around. There was no sight of the demon, or anything like that.

"_**I must congratulate you…"**_ a voice echoed around him as the blond tensed, he dropped in his combat position and frantically looked around with his eyes _**"…its been a long time since one managed to reach my lair…"**_the voice stated once again _**"…and such a young human too…"**_ it said, clearly amazed by Naruto's feat.

Fire suddenly burst in the air from the lava, in front of the blond. It slowly took shape making the blond's eyes widen in fear and awe. _"A fire elemental…"_ he thought as he gazed upon the imposing being. Its face had no distinctive shape, it was oval, it had no mouth or nose, only a pair of golden eyes that shone brightly like the sun itself.

Its body was bulky with chunks of rocks composing it as fire poured out of it, its arms bulky as well, a large bracelet of some sort on each arm. The elemental had no legs, a fiery vortex was present under it, large at the top and thinned down as it reached the ground. At its very base fire blazed around it. It seemed like the elemental hovered in the air.

The being looked at the blond, yet Naruto could not read what expression it had. _**"I commend you for passing the first test…"**_ it said as the blond looked at it curiously.

"First…test?" he asked not understanding. The area started shaking, as if the being chuckled at the blond's question, yet no such sound came from it or echoed around him.

"_**Yes…you see I've been waiting here for a worthy mage to make a pact with him or her. I wish to have a worthy mage to become my summoner."**_ The being stated making the blond's eyes widen at its proclamation, the book he had bought years ago said that finding a fire elemental that actually wanted to have a summoner was as rare as the Dragon's themselves.

"Then…all these people?" he asked looking at the corpses littered around him. The being however shook its head.

"_**No…they all fell to their deaths…none managed to reach me like you did…"**_ it stated making the blond understand what had happened to all the mages that tried reaching the center of Volcano. They all fell and died, either by hitting this platform or by falling in the lava itself.

"How come…I'm not suffocating to death?" he asked as the creature stood still, yet the blond was sure it was smirking.

"_**I've cast a spell reducing the heat around this area so that my future summoner could take the second and final test…"**_ the being said as the blond nodded in understanding. He wondered if he should take the test, it was rare for a mage to have an elemental as his summon, extremely rare. It would give him a lot of boost in his powers and who knows what else it could do to benefit him for the future.

"What test do you have? And is it only one?" he asked looking at the being.

"_**The first test required you to reach me…to show your courage in facing one of Mother Nature's forces itself…"**_ the being started as the blond listened to it carefully _**"…the second test requires you to defeat me in combat."**_ It then stated making his eyes widen at the proclamation.

"What?" he nearly shouted, panic was evident in his voice. "There is no way I could defeat you!" he said taking a step back.

"_**While it is true the odds are stacked against you, you have no choice. The test began as soon as you stepped onto this platform…"**_ the being said making the blond gulp.

"…_**there are a few things you need to know…slowly the heat will shatter my magical barrier, in how much time I do not know…"**_ that complicated things for the blond more than he wished

"…_**second, lava will slowly rise the moment we start fighting until it will consume this platform and devour you whole…"**_ now Naruto was more than sure there was no way he could defeat this thing.

"…_**and finally…should you lose the Volcano will erupt, killing those in the town below…"**_ the elemental said as the blond tensed and narrowed his eyes.

"You wouldn't…" he threatened with a low growl as the being stood silent for a couple of minutes.

"_**These are the rules set in place long ago…they shall not change."**_ It stated as the blond bit his lower lip to hold back a growl.

"What if I do not wish to fight you? What if I just turn my back now and start going back up?" he asked as the elemental immediately replied.

"_**Then…you lose…"**_ it stated as Naruto grumbled.

"How much?"

"_**How much what?"**_

"How much until the lava eats up the platform?" the blond asked with narrowed eyes as the being stood silent for a few seconds.

"_**That…you will have to figure it out…"**_the elemental stated as it moved its arm towards the blond, fire shooting out of it.

Naruto instantly reacted; he jumped out of the way rolling on the platform and avoiding the attack. He then jumped back on his feet and moved his body to the side as the same attack from before nearly hit him head on. He turned towards the elemental and glared as he moved his right hand in front of his face, covering his mouth and showing only his eyes.

A pillar of fire shot from underneath the platform and in front of the blond, it started surrounding him, creating a protective shield around him. The attack from before turned around and moved towards the blond hitting his defense. It was immediately sucked by the blond's fire and assimilated.

The elemental seemed to be surprised by that. _**"A fire mage…interesting."**_ It stated as it raised its arms in the air and lowered them on top of the blond.

Said blond jumped backwards avoiding the attack, his fire created a wall in front of him protecting him from the bits of lava that shot towards him. It then dispersed, continuing to circle around him. He jumped backwards on top of another platform, higher from the one he began on.

The fire around the blond shot in all directions, each moving to another platform; it took the form of human archers. The elemental looked at each one as they all took their fiery bows in their hands and pulled the strings. An arrow appeared on the bows and as they released the string the arrows shot towards the elemental hitting it.

The attacks were mostly ineffective, but their force was enough to make the elemental move its body back a little from the force. It turned towards the blond and saw him with a large fireball in his hand. He moved his arm backwards and then threw the fireball towards the elemental hitting it in the chest and making it take a step back.

The Volcano shook as the elemental roared, bits of rocks fell from the walls into the lava. Ten pillars of fire shot from the lava and moved towards the blond and his fire archers. The elementals attack took down the blond's fire like it was nothing, his eyes widened as he jumped away from the platform he was standing as one of the fiery pillars crashed into the wall and drilled till it reached the other side.

The area started shaking once more as the blond turned around with wide eyes, he ducked just in time as the same pillar of fire smashed the wall behind him and appeared in front of him.

Naruto placed his hand on the floor and jumped away grabbing a ledge from the wall. He looked around as fast as he could and grinned, turning back towards his target he waited for the elemental to make its move.

Three pillars of fire shot towards the blond who grinned and jumped out of the way, the pillars smashed into the wall completely destroying it and dispelling themselves. The elemental moved its right hand towards the blond as spikes made out of fire shot from its palm towards the blond.

Naruto ran as fast as he could as the spikes crashed in the wall around him, he jumped from platform to platform dodging the fiery spikes. He came to an abrupt halt, falling on his back as the platform split in two right in front of him and lava burst out. He looked towards the elemental whose left arm was up in the air, this was its doing.

He glared at the obstacle in front of him and jumped back on his feet. Running towards the wall to his right he started running up it until he felt he was slipping, he then used all his force and pushed himself away, twirling in the air and landing on a platform above the elemental. He looked towards the last support bean and summoned a fireball, he threw it towards the support and jumped away from the platform as it came crashing down on top of the elemental.

The blond landed on a nearby platform and watched as the previous one crashed on the elementals head, making it sink in the lava. He grinned; he would have to thank the elemental for doing most of his job in destroying the other three support beans with its attacks.

The ground started shaking as the blond nearly lost his balance and fell in the lava below. The elemental rose from the lava, shattering the platform that had fallen on top of it. With a mighty roar lava and flames sprout out all around it. The being turned its gazed towards the blond and moved its hands towards him. The lava and fire shot towards the blond, the majority took the shape of a dragons head or another ferocious animal.

His eyes widened as he jumped out of the way, a quarter of the attack hitting the wall and destroying part of the Volcano. On the outside an explosion was heard as people could see fire spewing out of the base of Masetech.

Back inside the Volcano the blond was having a bad time, dodging the attacks was one thing, but being careful not to fall in the lava was another. The platforms started cracking every time he stepped on them, he was sure the elemental was at fault for that. At one point he was about to fall in the lava with the platform that started sinking.

He noticed that the platforms on top of the lava would start sinking the moment he stepped on them; he also noticed the lava's level rising at alarming rate. It wasn't long before the platform he had begun on was completely consumed by it.

When he started, said platform was at the Elementals chest level, there were about twenty platforms going further down, underneath the one had started on. By now, more than half of those were underneath the lava, it wasn't long until the main one was consumed and he lost the trial.

Spunning around, he created a wall of flame trying to stop the attacks. Only one of them was stopped as the others crushed his defense and kept rushing towards him. He summoned a fireball in his hand and threw it towards the incoming fire, making both of them disperse from the impact in a large explosion.

The blond ducked and jumped to the side as several pillars of flame and lava smashed on the platform he was on. He landed on a platform at the Elementals knee level. The platform started shattering as lava burst in the air lifting chunks of rock. The blond covered his face and tried to maintain his balance as the piece of platform he was standing on was lifted in the air.

He lowered his hands and created two fireballs, on in each hand and threw them towards the elemental hitting it in the chest. He jumped out of the way as the elemental moved towards him swiping its arm at him. The blond landed on another small chunk of rock being lifted in the air.

He looked around and noticed the lava was rising at increased speed, faster than before. Pieces of the platforms were lifted in the air in different locations. He turned towards the elemental and jumped out of the way as its arms smashed into the chunk of rock he was standing. The blond continued to move backwards, jumping from platform to platform until he reached the wall.

Creating two more fireballs he hurled them towards the elemental, said elemental smashed one of them with his arms and took the second one in the chest. It roared as it sent a punch towards the blond only for him to jump out of the way. The punch hit the wall of the Volcano making it shake; the being took its arm out of the hole and continued chasing after the blond.

Naruto kept jumping from platform to platform while hurling fireballs towards the elemental, drawing it towards him. The elemental kept on sending pillars of flame or lava towards him or throwing its fists at him, each time they missed, hitting the wall instead. It was hard to hit such a small target after all; the blond was like a small fly to the elemental.

The blond landed on the starting platform and started choking. The spell had most likely vanished and there was no air anymore or the little that was wasn't enough to keep the blond up. His vision became blurry as he looked towards the elemental as its fists moved to squash him.

Jumping backwards and falling on his back he managed to avoid the attack. He shakily stood back up on his feet and grit his teeth, the lava was slowly starting to close in on him and devour the platform. He looked up at the fiery being with determination in his eyes as he crossed his arms in front of him.

With one swift motion he separated his arms as a massive firewall, shaped like an 'X' shot towards the elemental. The being submerged under the lava making the blond smirk, the attack hit the wall of the Volcano which shook dangerously. As the elemental emerged from under the lava a large platform collapsed on top of it, the being looked up as the platform was slowly falling through its body.

It was then that the elemental noticed the entire placed was crumbling down on top of it, it looked towards the blond who wore a confident smirk on his face, it also looked like the blond was about to drop unconscious any minute.

With a roar the being charged forward slamming its fists in the platform and shattering it, the blond was flung upwards, his eyes wide in fear as he flew up for a good three hundred meters. As he started descending he looked around for a platform or anything to grab on to, yet he could barely move his body, he was too tired.

Looking up he noticed the tip of the Volcano was collapsing and large chunks of rocks were falling down towards him and the elemental. A smile appeared on his face as he closed his eyes, he had no more strength to move his body, yet he knew that he had won. Even if he died, at least he saved those below.

"Erza…Mira…" he whispered as his body was inches away from the lava.

**xXx**

A large stream of smoke and hot air shot out of the tip of the Volcano as the tip started crumbling, followed by the rest of the imposing Volcano's body.

Naruto crashed on the ground with a resonating 'thud', he was lucky he fell through a tree and in the grass. He gasped for air and started coughing, for a second there he thought he had died, he thought he had seen the gates and someone calling for him, yet…here he was, gasping for air as the ground shook violently.

He rolled around facing the Volcano, witnessing as it was slowly crumbling.

"_**That was mighty impressive…"**_ the elementals voice resonated around the blond as the air started shifting in front of him. Fire spewed out of the ground forming the elemental in all his glory.

"What…how?" the blond asked, he had expected to die back there.

"_**You won."**_ Was its answer as the blond blinked owlishly. _**"It was an impressive strategy, to make everything fall on top of me."**_ It said as the blond grinned weakly.

"A fight against one like you…suicidal…you didn't say how to win, only that I need to win." He told the elemental that started shimmering; it was like it was laughing at the comment.

"_**Even so…you destroyed my home…"**_ it said as the blond grinned sheepishly. The ground shook as the blond looked towards the Volcano with worry in his eyes. _**"Do not worry, it will not erupt. The lava receded as I wished it…the town is safe."**_ The elemental stated as the blond nodded with a smile.

"_**However…"**_ the being started as it started shrinking until it was the same height as the blond. _**"…I would like you…to be my summoner…"**_the elemental stated as the blond remembered why they started fighting in the first place. He grinned as he nodded and extended his hand to shake the elementals only to realize he would probably lose it.

The elemental started shimmering once more, this time he heard it laugh. _**"My name is Inferno…think of my name and you shall summon me…"**_

"Names Naruto Uzumaki, I look forward to working with you great one." The blond stated bowing towards the elemental.

"_**No need for formalities, from now on we are partners…"**_ it stated as it succumbed into the ground, vanishing.

Taking a deep breath the blond looked at the sky and started laughing, he had done something that the book had doubted _'impossible'_. No one had managed to get a Elemental summon for centuries and yet here he was, after a long battle with one such elemental he had gained one in his ranks.

Slowly, the blond stood up and started limping towards the town with a smile on his face.

**xXx**

When he reached the town he was immediately assaulted by questions from everyone, they were all worried what had happened as they saw Masetech crumbling. The mayor appeared mere seconds later and dismissed everyone, he wanted to take the blond to a hospital and have him patched up and let him rest. Yet before the blond was taken away he left everyone with a message.

"I've killed your demon…there is nothing to worry now."

With those words the blond was taken to the hospital to get his wounds treated. But by morning, his room was empty, only a note could be found in which Naruto stated he had left, to continue his journey. What journey he was talking about they didn't know, the mayor had paid him that night, before leaving the blond alone to rest.

Naruto left in the morning taking the money and leaving the note. They were saddened that their hero had left, yet happy that he had done what others could not. Tales of his exploit traveled throughout the lands, graining the attention of everyone. He was the most talked person, from mages to common people.

The people of Logimas had named him _Demon Slayer_.


	5. Chapter 5

**Note: People keep wanting Erza and Mira in the pairing, I've already thought about it (and I thank you all that sent me your suggestions) but even with everything I have I still can't find a valid reason for both of them to accept…I will still think, but the probability of it happening is very low (and no, I will not pull the same trick like in one of my old stories)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 5**

A figure ran through the forest, his destination was a bandit camp not far from the town that hired him for the job. It was a simple job, all he had to do is kill the bandits and save the ones captured by the bandits. They had taken the daughters of the villagers, maybe they wanted to sell them into slavery, the blond didn't really want to think about that.

The fifteen year old blond stopped at the edge of the forest overlooking the bandit camp in utter shock and confusion, in the middle of the camp stood a monstrous creature, as tall as Inferno. It seemed like it was feeding on something, probably the bandits, or so the blond prayed.

Making his way towards the camp he made sure not to make his presence known to the monster, or whatever it was. As he walked through the camp as stealthy as he could he felt like he would puke at any moment from the stench in the air.

He grit his teeth as his fists clenched, he came across a ritual site and bodies were littered everywhere; the bodies of the women that had been kidnapped. Turning towards the creature he now realized what it was, a demon.

Closing his eyes he concentrated on his powers, two fireballs appeared in his hands as he hurled them towards the demon, he would not let it leave this place alive. As the attack hit the demon in the back it gave a monstrous howl of pain as it stood up and turned around. The blond wasn't fazed by its size at all, he didn't care now. After fighting and winning against Inferno two years ago no matter how big a monster was he would take it down.

The demon had two large horns on top of its head, a bull like face with razor sharp teeth. The body was that of a human, numerous chains fell from its body as it stood up, most likely whoever summoned it tried to control it, but failed in doing so. It had hooves instead of legs and four claw like arms.

It roared to the sky making the ground shake and looked down towards the blond only to find that he had vanished. Moments later a spear made out of fire impaled it from the behind. The demon roared in pain as it turned around and trashed around with its arms, flailing them in every direction.

Naruto jumped away avoiding its attacks and slammed his hands on the ground. A pillar of fire shot from behind the blond taking the shape of a large dragon. The blond's creation let out an imposing roar and shot forward towards the demon grabbing its shoulders with its front paws. The demon roared in pain as the fire started burning its skin, it punched the dragon in the chest making a hole that regenerated as soon as it pulled its fist out.

The demon used all its force and pushed the dragon off of it, as soon as it was free however two more fireballs connected with its back making it stagger forward. Angered, the demon stomped the ground making it shake and the blond to lose balance and fall on his back. A massive broadsword then shot out of the ground, the demon grabbed it with one of its hands and raised it in the air.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, he jumped out of the way as the broadsword slammed in the ground, leaving a large hole. Turning his gaze towards the demon he ordered his dragon to attack once more. The dragon shot towards its enemy, slamming its body against the demons and making it crash on the ground.

It then raised its right paw and slammed it in the demons flesh. It roared in pain as the fire started burning its flesh and insides. The blond calmly walked forward and stopped in front of the demons face, said demon opened its eyes and narrowed them at the blond. Fire entangled the mage completely obstructing the demon from seeing his face and body.

A massive spear formed out of fire appeared above the demon's head. Before it lowered on its skull and taking its life the demon muttered two ancient words – _Ignis Deus._

The blond looked at the corpse of the demon and dismissed the dragon. The flames evaporated in thin air, like they had never existed in the first place. He looked around the carnage that took place here, he recognized the ritual, albeit a little. He had come across these markings across the world in his travels; in three different places at least.

One of them was quite ancient and took place not far from a town that had been utterly destroyed by Deliora. Most likely someone had summoned it there in the first place, but the blond would never know for sure.

As he scoured the area he came across a trap door. Opening it he saw a ladder leading down into the depths, he hoped that whoever was responsible for this was down there so that he could kill them, slow and painfully.

**xXx**

Five mages stood in a circular room channeling energy into an orb when said orb cracked and then shattered to a million pieces. They stopped channeling as one of them walked to the center of the room and inspected the damage.

"Someone killed it…" he muttered as the others looked surprised.

"But who could have killed it?" one asked with surprise evident in his voice as footsteps echoed around them.

They immediately tensed and looked around for the origin of the sound, they suddenly heard the sound come to a stop and turned around. In the doorway stood a person wearing a brown leather trench coat unbuttoned up, the inner part being orange. He wore black pants with a gray shirt tucked in by a belt. On his head he wore a black cloth mask, completely covering his face. Only his two eyes could be seen.

"Who the fuck are you?" demanded the leader of the three as the man turned towards him and raised his hand up, his palm open and facing him.

"Your death." He answered as a fire spike shot out of his hand and pierced the unsuspecting man in between his eyes. The man dropped on the ground, face first. Moments later his entire body burst into flames completely destroying his remains.

The other four recovered from their shock and immediately attacked the newcomer. The blond took a few steps back and closed his eyes, vanishing in the shadows just as an ice shard struck the wall where he once stood. They started looking around frantically for the blond, wondering where he had gone to.

A gurgling sound was heard soon followed by a thud, they turned towards the origin of the sound and found their ice mage lying in a pool of his own blood, with his face on the ground. Yet the man was nowhere in sight, with a panicked scream one of them started throwing enchanted daggers everywhere.

"Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?" one of them demanded as his partner calmed down the third.

"Don't know…don't care…" was the reply, it echoed all around them sending shivers down their spines.

"Come out and face us like a man you rat!" the second yelled as no reply came.

They stood in silence for a couple of seconds until the ground started shaking, they looked around trying to figure out what the blond was going to do next. All of a sudden light started appearing from all directions, the room had a total of five entrances, light appeared in all five hallways.

Moments later five pillars of fire emerged from the hallways moving towards the mages, one of them reacting on instinct raise a wall of mud around them protecting them from the attack. Yet the pillars never hit the wall, they started moving around the wall of mud as if waiting for them to make a move.

They stood there for what seemed like hours, the newcomer was nowhere in sight and the pillars of flame kept on moving around them, waiting for them to step out. That is until the man's voice echoed around them once more.

"This bores me…" was what he said, the pillars of fire suddenly shot up and moved above the mages. Realizing what was going to happen two of them jumped out of the way as the three pillars of fire descended upon their colleague burning him alive.

His screams echoed in the chamber making the remaining two move back in fright. The wall of mud collapsed and the fire shot towards them. They were too afraid to move as the fires created a large head and swallowed them whole, killing them in one go.

Slowly, the fires started vanishing, as they did footsteps echoed around the chamber. The blond stepped in the middle of the chamber and smelled the air, it smelled like burned flesh. A grin appeared on his face as he snapped his fingers and the entire place was on fire. He calmly walked out of the chamber, letting the place burn away.

**xXx**

The people of the small village on the northern coast of Seven looked towards the horizon, waiting for the mage they had hired to return with news or with their daughters. As the sun started rising in the sky they could see a masked figure walking towards the village, they recognized the figure as being the mage they hired a day ago. Though they wondered why he was alone, they started fearing the worse.

As the blond reached the entrance to the village he looked at the assembled people and lowered his head. He slowly kneeled down in front of them and started talking.

"I…apologize…I was too late…" he told them as he heard several gasps following by crying. He could hear people crying at the news yet he didn't raise his head to see them, he heard them scream the names of those that had died, or so he thought, he didn't know for sure.

"Why are you kneeling before us?" he heard the village leader asking between sobs, most likely he had someone that died there.

"I've failed my mission, this is the first time it happened…and like this…" he said, his voice becoming but a whisper. "…if only I had been faster…I could have stopped them…" he said as he continued to listen to the chaos around him.

"What…happened to them?" he heard someone ask, he bit his lip not knowing what to tell them. Should he tell them the truth? Or should he lie to them? He didn't know if they would go there and see the corpse of the demon, couldn't burn it down, the skin was too hard to burn. It would have taken him at least two weeks to fully destroy the body.

"They were used for a … ritual." He said calmly, he tried to find the right words. "They summoned a demon by sacrificing them all…" he explained. He could hear people gasp and he thought he heard some faint from the news.

"What…is the demon…" one of them started shakily as the blond answered immediately.

"I killed it…it will never bother you." He answered "And…I brought them back…" he stated as he turned around and pointed to a nearby hill. "I left them there, covered and arranged. My spells are protecting them from the wildlife."

They looked amazed at what he said and grateful at the same time. "Why…why did you do all this for us?" one of them asked as the blond turned back to face them, yet his head still bowed down.

"It felt like the right thing to do…" he answered truthfully as he started hearing people thanking him and leaving. He could hear them walk past him, most likely going to retrieve their loved ones bodies.

As more and more left he suddenly saw a pouch being dropped in front of him. With wide eyes he looked up at whoever dropped it, it was the leader of the village. He looked at him with a sad smile as he nodded.

The blond however shook his head and pushed the bag away. "I'm sorry…I can't take them…I haven't completed my mission." He answered while shakily standing up and moving back a little.

"No…" the man started while shaking his head. "…while its true you … could not complete the mission…you did do more than we could have hoped." He answered as the blond looked at him curiously.

The man seeing his curious look smiled and explained "Other mages would have most likely never brought them here…or demanded money for killing the demon. You didn't demand money and you brought their earthly remains back at least…" he answered as he lowered his head.

The blond however shook his head again and turned around. "You need that more than I do…" he told the man as he started walking away.

"Wait!" the old man shouted, the blond however did not stop. "At least…tell us your name." he called out.

The blond raised his right hand letting the man see the symbol on his hand. "Ignis Deus!" he replied as he vanished from the man's sight in a swirl of fire.

**xXx**

It was early in the morning when a package arrived at Fairy Tail's doorstep. Makarov was surprised by the large bouquet of flowers that the delivery man gave him. He asked if it was some sort of mistake, yet the man shook his head and told him it was for the entire guild.

Curious, Makarov walked inside and set the flowers on the bar. Everyone looked at the man curiously as he walked inside with the flowers, wonder for who they were or from where they came. As Makarov set the flowers on the bar a letter dropped on the ground, he picked it up and opened it. After reading it a smile appeared on his face knowing what it was all about.

"Mira-chan…please put these in a vase." He said as the girl nodded and ran to find a vase. He then walked to the mission board and took a nail out. He placed the letter on the board and nailed it there just as Mira returned with the vase.

"Ah good…please put them next to the board…" he said with a smile as he turned around and walked out of the bar.

As soon as he made his way out of the bar everyone rushed to the board and started reading the letter. Mira carefully walked through them and placed the vase on a table near the board, then turned her attention to the letter.

"_We're sending this letter and bouquet as a thank you to Fairy Tail for helping us when others would not. Though the mission itself was not completed as the ones needed to be saved were killed before the mage could reach them, he had gone above and beyond to repay his mistake by not only punishing those to blame for our loved ones death, but by killing the monster they had summoned from the blood of our kin. _

_Even after that he cleaned the bodies and brought them home to us, carried them all the way to our doorstep. When given the reward for the mission he declined it, no matter how much we tried to persuade him into taking his just reward he would not. We had never seen such a humble person in our entire life, he bowed before us and apologized for failing the mission…others would have most likely demanded a reward for killing the beast summoned from our kin's blood. Yet…he didn't demand anything. He only asked for forgiveness. _

_This bouquet is a thank you, for all those in Fairy Tail but most importantly, for the one that helped us. A thank you from all those in our little village to Ignis Deus, may he live a long and happy life._

_Signed, Mayor Omadar."_

As they finished reading the thank you letter one thought passed through all their minds. Just who was Ignis Deus?

**xXx**

For the first time in his life Naruto felt scared and unsecure. As he walked through the forest at the border of Fiore and Seven, the sixteen year old blond had this strange feeling that someone or something was watching him.

As the wind blew through the trees he stopped and looked around, he was in a clearing. He carefully looked around, trying to figure out where the one spying on him was yet he couldn't see or feel anyone around. It unnerved him.

Looking around one last time the blond took a step forward, then another and another until he felt the presence shift once more. Flames sprouted around him shooting in the direction he last felt the presence. Nothing happened, no scream was heard. He bit his lip wondering who was following him.

Again he felt the presence and it vanished just as soon as he felt it. Having enough of these games he decided to call out whoever was out there. "Alright, show yourself! I know you're there!" he shouted. The only answer he received was the wind blowing through the trees.

He grit his teeth as his eyes scanned the area. Then he felt a presence behind him, spunning around he came face to face with a strange man.

The man was wearing some sort of black armor with a mask with no design on it, only a strange symbol Naruto had never seen in his entire life. At the same time, he could not seem the man's eyes through the masks opening, this unnerved the blond even further.

"Who are you?" he asked taking a step back, just to be sure.

The man suddenly shimmered and vanished only to appear behind the blond holding a strange knife at his throat. The blond's eyes widened in fear, he didn't even sense the man move, let alone see him.

"Kyuubi…Lord Hokage demands you return to your rightful place as Konoha's weapon." The man stated in an emotionless voice making the blond tense and stop breathing.

Konoha…Hokage…they had found him, they found a way to come to this world and search for him. Still, maybe there was time, maybe he could trick the man into believing he was wrong.

"Kyuubi? Hokage? What are you talking about I know nothing of these!" the blond shouted in surprise and confusion.

"You can lie as much as you want demon, I have been following you for three years, I know who you are." He stated as the blond now knew he was fucked. There was no way out of this, he would have to fight, he would never let himself be dragged back to Konoha. He'd rather kill himself then return to the hellhole that took everything he had dear.

"Fuck you…" the blond growled as he spun around, the knife barely touching him. He moved to hit the man with his elbow yet the man vanished before the blond could even make contact with him.

The ninja appeared several feet away from the blond, standing still like a rock. Summoning his fire the blond ordered it to attack, to burn his enemy until there was nothing left but his ash.

His target vanished in thin air as the flames collided with the ground, he turned around and looked behind him, there was no one there. He then turned back and came face to face with the ninja who punched him in the face. The blond was flung back several feet, before he could even hit the ground the ninja appeared next to him and grabbed him by the throat.

The man spun around and threw the blond away, he crashed on the ground and rolled for a few feet. As he tried to stand up the ninja appeared next to him again and slammed his leg into his back making the blond gasp for air. He bent down and grabbed him by the hair flinging him away once more.

This time however the blond managed to land on his feet, as the ninja appeared in front of him he ducked under a kick and moved forward grabbing the man and slamming him on the ground. He felt a sharp pain move through his body and he back away and moved his hand to his shoulder. He felt the handle of the strange dagger, but before he could pull it out the ninja appeared next to him once more kicking him in the chest.

Thinking fast the blond summoned his fire and crashed into it, he used the fire to maintain his ground. Shaking his head he summoned three pillars of fire and ordered them to attack; the pillars shot towards the masked man at great speed. As the first reached him the man shimmered out of existence and appeared a few feet away, the pillar crashed into the ground dispelling itself.

As the second reached the man he played the same trick only this time the blond was prepared, the pillar rose up before hitting the ground and moved towards the mans new location. Said man lowered his hands and crouched slightly, he flashed through hand signs and a water dragon shot out of the ground. It roared once and moved towards the pillar extinguishing the fire, it then moved towards the last one extinguishing that one as well before shattering, dispelling itself.

"You cannot win…surrender." He ordered in an emotionless voice making the blond grit his teeth.

He crossed his arms in front of him and concentrated, he then moved them away. A large wall of fire shaped like an 'X' raced towards the ninja burning everything in its way. The ninja flashed through hand signs once again and slammed his foot on the ground. A large wall made out of solid rock shot out of the ground in front of him. The attack collided with the wall and dispelled itself, the wall was intact, no damage had been done to it.

Naruto held back a gasp as his eyes twitched in anger. He shouted to the heavens bending his body backwards, fire shot out form the ground consuming him. The fire moved towards the sky and slowly took the form of a massive dragon which in turn roared towards the heavens making the ground shake. It lowered its head towards the ninja and opened its mouth.

Fire spewed towards the masked man who jumped out of the way, avoiding the attack. The man proved faster than the dragon managing to run around it like it was nothing. He then stopped behind the dragon and flashed through hand signs, he touched the ground and a massive swamp appeared underneath the dragon.

Naruto jumped out of the way just in time and crashed on the ground a few feet away. He turned to look behind him and his eyes widened in horror as his strongest attack was sinking in a swamp. The dragon was struggling to set itself free but to no avail.

He looked down at the ground in anger as he dispelled the dragon, the flames retuning to him and moving around his body. Kneeling, the blond brought his hands up to his face and closed his eyes, the fire intensified and moved around the blond creating a small fiery tornado, protecting him from anything coming from the outside.

Before he could even begin the summoning however the ninja burst through the wall of flame stabbing him in the hands, binding them together. Naruto shouted in pain as the man grabbed him by the head and kneed him in the face. He then kicked him away making the blond unconsciously dispel his fire and landing on the ground a few feet away.

"I cannot let you bring out that monstrosity." The ninja stated emotionlessly as a pair of claws appeared on his hands.

With wide eyes the blond struggled to free his hands, yet no matter how hard he pulled he just couldn't set them free. He looked up towards the ninja and ducked under a swipe, he jumped over his leg sweet and stumbled back as the masked man managed to cut him on the chest.

The wound started to burn him making the blond grit his teeth in pain, he thought he could see smoke lift form his wound. He ducked under another attack and jumped backwards as the ninja tried to stab him in the chest with his claws. Side stepping, the blond raised his leg and kicked the ninja in the chest, yet instead of being flung back the man grabbed the blond's leg and twisted it making a sickening crack resonated throughout the clearing.

He screamed in pain as he tried to crawl away, only to have the ninja grab him by the shoulder and throw him away. The blond stopped a few feet from his enemy, he slowly got back on his feet and glared at the ninja, he summoned his fire just as the ninja appeared in front of him and moved to strike.

The blond tried to dodge it, yet the attack managed to hit him. His scream echoed in the forest as the ninja slashed him on the face. Naruto dropped on the ground from the intense pain, he brought his hands up to his face and opened his eyes, he screamed once more as he closed his eyes and bit on the dagger's hilt pulling it out with his teeth.

Once more he tried to open his eyes only to move his hands over them and scream in pain. He started wreathing in pain on the ground, trashing all around and cursing the ninja for what he had done.

As the ninja moved to pick the blond up another person stepped into the clearing.

"Move away from the boy." The newcomer stated with anger evident in his voice.

The ninja turned towards the newcomer and pulled out several knives from his sleeve, yet before he could even throw them he was sucked into the newcomers attack.

His screams echoed in the forest as he dropped dead on the ground several seconds later. The newcomer slowly walked towards the blond and kneeled besides him.

"Who's there?" he shouted, he tried to put up a strong face yet the fear in his voice was evident.

"Don't worry…I'm one of yours, from Fairy Tail." The newcomer stated as the blond visibly relaxed a little. "Take your hands from your face so I may see the extent of the damage." His voice was surprisingly calm.

Slowly, the blond moved his hands away from his face yet kept his eyes closed. He could feel the man touching his left eye, he gasped in pain at the touch, the man immediately withdrew his hand.

"You will need to open your left eye…I know it will hurt…but you have to." The man said, the blond gulped as he slowly nodded.

He slowly started opening his eye, trying to ignore the pain that his brain started registering. He couldn't see anything even though he was sure he had opened his eye.

"This isn't good." He heard the man say, worry evident in his voice. "Those claws were poisoned, I will have to take the poison out, but I warn you it will hurt."

"I…can take it…." The blond said shaking uncontrollably. He could feel tears leaking out of his eyes yet no sound came from him. This wasn't what he wanted, he never expected something like this to happen to him, was he too weak? Didn't he train enough all those years? Did defeating several demons and Inferno not strengthen him enough?

His train of thoughts was stopped as pain shot through his body from the chest. He did his best to keep his cries of pain at bay, yet when the man moved to tend to his eye it was too much, the blond howled in pain before passing out from the intense pain.

**xXx**

His ears picked up the soft sound of rain, his nose picked the smell of something cooking and he could hear the fire crackling. He slowly opened his eyes but everything was dark, he panicked at that wondering what happened to his sight.

"Easy…" he heard someone call, he was about to summon his fire when he remembered the voice, it was the man that saved him from the ninja. "Let me help you." The man stated as he felt his hands on his face, moments later the darkness disappeared and he could see what was around him. Yet, there was something odd.

He moved his hand up to his face, a piece of clothing was tied to his head, covering his left eye. He moved to remove the clothing only to have the man grab his hand. "Don't…it's gone…" he said as the teen's eye widened at the news. He had lost an eye from that battle, sure it was better than losing his life or being dragged back to Konoha, but still…he had lost something.

He looked down at the ground in sadness, not knowing what to say. The man sensing his discomfort and pain backed away, giving him room to think over what happened. They stood in silence for a long time, the blond did not talk even when the food was done, yet he had accepted the man's generous offer and ate what he was given in silence.

After hours of staying in complete silence the blond decided to talk. "Who are you?" he asked weakly, he could barely feel his strength.

"Mistgun…" the man replied "…been a member of Fairy Tail for a year now." He said showing the blond his mark and proving he was indeed a fellow member.

Naruto nodded as he lowered his head. "How long was I out?" he asked as his savior answered immediately.

"A week."

The blond was shocked at that, his eye widened in horror at the news. He had been unconscious for an entire week. "Why are we here then?" he asked looking around the cave they were currently residing in.

The man looked at the fire as he answered the blond's question. "You were having a fever during that week…" he paused for a second "…I also lost you a few times due to the poison…"

The blond bit his lower lip at the news, he felt incredibly weak. And to think he had died for a few seconds because of one encounter. He brought his knees up to his chest and hugged them while looking at the fire. He didn't know what to do anymore. Konoha was here, looking for him, they already proved to him that they were stronger, the next battle might be in their favor.

"Relax." Mist stated as he looked towards the blond. "Everyone has his or her moment of weakness." He stated as if reading the blond's mind. His head snapped up as he looked at his fellow guild member in shock.

The man's face was completely covered by clothing; all he could see were his eyes. "I feel weak…" he stated looking back down at the ground.

"It's the poison, it's a powerful one. Never seen one like that before. Clearly the man tried to put you in some sort of comatose state with it, but the mixture was too potent, it would have killed you in a day or two if not treated." Mist replied while tending to the fire, the blond didn't bother to react to the news in any way, either way he would have been dead if Mist hadn't shown up when he did.

"Thank you…" he said with a low voice as Mist looked up at him. "…for saving me." He said as the man smiled.

"It was my pleasure…Ignis Deus…" he said with a grin as the blond's head shot up in recognition to the name. "…you are quite famous now…only a handful of people in the guild know who the great Ignis Deus really is."

The blond nodded dumbly at that and then turned his attention back to the fire.

"What will you do…after you heal?" his colleague asked as the blond stood silent for several minutes, thinking of an answer.

"I … don't know …" he replied.

"Would you like to travel with me?" Mist asked as the blond looked up surprised. "Until you get your skills back or … your confidence…or if you wish to feel more secure. There is always more security when traveling with another." He stated as the blond nodded.

"That's true…however…" he paused for a minute, he stood gazing at the fire. "…I'd like to do something before I actually team up with someone…" he stated in a low voice as Mist nodded in understanding.

"If you need me…just call…" he said as he stood up and started walking away. The blond didn't bother looking towards him, yet he nodded at what his rescuer had said. He stood looking at the fire and thinking about his next move, wondering what he would do now.

**xXx**

For three days Naruto stayed in the cave, pondering on his new predicament before actually making up his mind and leaving. He would not let this hold him back, he would train to become even stronger and fight back those that tried anything against him. He had grown to detest Konoha even more in those three days, he promised to himself that if he ever stumbled across a Konoha-nin in this world he would immediately kill him or her.

Mistgun had never returned after he left, the blond believed he had a mission or something. Even so, he didn't hold it against him if he didn't want to stay anymore. He wondered however how calling his name would make him know that he wants to team up with him and even more on how the man found him there battling the ninja. Had he been following him for the past days, weeks or months? Or was it just that…blind luck…

He shook his head, he had no idea. He would have to ask the man when he would meet him again.

Currently the blond was making his way out of Eridas, a large town at the border of Fiore and Bosco, in Fiore's territory. He had finished a small job to get some money and travel towards Tully village.

As he reached the end of the town his eye widened at the person approaching him, it was none other than Erza Scarlet. Lowering his head he made sure not to make eye contact with her and walked past the girl.

The girl noticed the man from a distance, he resembled the rumors of how _Ignis Deus_ looked like, yet she couldn't be sure. Still, it didn't matter to her, she wasn't here to look for a mystery, she had a job to complete. As she past by the man however something caught her eyes, the Fairy Tail mark on his right hand.

She stopped walking and turned towards her. "You!" she said with authority in her voice, pointing towards the blond who stopped for a second before slowly starting to walk away. "Stop right there! How did you get that mark!" she demanded, yet the blond started walking faster.

Her eyes narrowed as she unsheathed her sword and immediately charged towards the man. For her, the lack of response meant he was an imposter, posing as one of the members of Fairy Tail to get his way around with people.

As the blond sensed her approaching he started running away, sparing only one glance back towards her. He gulped as he saw the serious look on her face, he couldn't afford to get caught, he didn't want to explain to her everything from the moment he had left without saying anything to why he looked the way he did.

He ran out of town crashing into merchants and making their carts drop on the ground in an attempt to delay Erza or lose her. Yet she masterfully avoided all of them until she managed to catch up with him on the plains outside of town. She grabbed him by the collar and threw him back making him roll on the ground several feet.

The blond jumped back on his feet and faced her, he was lucky he decided to wear the mask else she would have recognized him and either killed him on the spot for what he did when they were twelve, or beat him to a pulp and demand answers. He sweat dropped as he realized she was about to do one of those just now despite the fact she didn't know it was him.

"How dare you pose as a Fairy Tail member…" she growled out as she didn't give the blond any time to reply. She charged forward swinging her sword towards the blond.

Naruto ducked under her swing and moved backward, stepping to the side and avoiding a slash. He ducked again as she tried to cut him in half and then jumped out of the way to avoid her punch. If he were to use his magic it would be over, she still wouldn't stop her attacks, only for a moment due to the shock, then she would renew them.

His eyes narrowed as he managed to grab her hand and throw her over his shoulder. She crashed on the ground and the blond moved on top of her stepping on her arms. "Yield" he demanded, yet she only growled and hit him in the back with her feet.

Naruto stumbled forward as the girl rolled out of the way and jumped back on her feet. She turned towards him and attacked once again. Naruto ducked as she swung her sword, cutting the air in front of his face, mere inches away from him.

He ducked and grabbed one of her hands, she slammed her head in his face making the blond release her and take a step back. His eyes widened as he jumped to the side avoiding her sword, yet before he could move out of the way she grabbed his mask and the clothing over his eye and pulled ripping them both.

The blond shouted in pain as she touched his still healing wounds and grabbed his face. He dropped on his knees with his head down towards the ground. Erza stopped as she saw the blond hair; with narrowed eyes she pointed her sword towards her opponent.

"Up." She ordered as the blond shook for a few seconds and slowly stood up, his hands never leaving his left eye. As he raised his head he looked towards the girl which gasped in surprise and dropped her sword from the shock. "Naruto…?" she asked shakily as the blond looked at the ground and nodded.

"Yea…" he replied as she took a step forward and moved her hands towards his. The blond pulled away form her as he pushed her hands away with his right hand, his left hand still covering the left side of his face.

She narrowed her eyes at that. "Why did you do that?" she asked as the blond looked away and shook his head. Her eyes narrowed further at that display. It was then that she remembered something, when she fought the blond she only saw one of his eyes through the masks holes, in the other one she saw some sort of blue clothing.

The girl looked at the mask and started searching it, she pulled out a blue piece of clothing, it was soaked in blood. With wide eyes she moved towards the blond and grabbed his hand, Naruto glared at her as he tried to pry himself free from her grasp.

"Stop it Erza." Yet she continued trying to pry his hand away from his face, she could vaguely see something that looked like a cut on his face, but she wasn't sure. "Erza!" he shouted pushing her away and shocking her. "Please…stop…" his voice was weak, scaring the girl.

He looked down at the ground, he couldn't let her see, it would only worry her further. Once more he heard her approaching, he raised his head up wanting to tell her to stop yet this time she moved her hands to the side of his head, a piece of clothing was in her hands. She placed it over his eye and tied it from behind before stepping away with a small smile.

Naruto looked down at the ground and adjusted the clothing before looking back at her. He lowered his hand, her eyes widened at what she could see. There were three large gashes going down from his forehead, over his eye from what she assumed and reaching down to the middle of his left cheek.

Erza took a step forward and placed her hand on his cheek, over the clothing. The blond flinched as pain washed through him, he didn't know if she saw that or realized it.

"Naruto…" he voice was soft and she seemed…scared. "What happened?" she asked as the blond lowered his head and placed his hand on hers.

He stood quiet for several minutes, thinking of what to tell her. He would return to the guild, someday, but maybe it was better to tell her something now and not do what he did back then when he was twelve.

"The past caught up with me." He replied vaguely making her frown slightly. "Were it not for Mistgun…I'd be dead most likely." He said as she held back a gasp, her eyes were wide at the news.

They stood in silence for what seemed like hours, she wanted to ask him who attacked him, who scarred him like that but she knew that he wouldn't tell her. She could see it in his body language and by how long it took to reply to her first question.

She let her hand drop as she moved closer and embraced the blond. "I missed you…" she murmured stunning the blond "…everyone misses you…" she said as the blond looked at her sadly, he moved his arms around her and held her close. They stood like that in silence until the blond broke it.

"I'm sorry…" he said weakly. "…I know I shouldn't have left like that…but I had to…else you would have stopped me…" he told her referring to everyone in the guild; they would have done anything to stop him from undertaking this personal quest of his.

She didn't reply at that, yet she smiled a bit. They both wanted to stay like this, for a little longer or even forever, however the blond knew he couldn't stay like this yet; he had to finish what he started.

He gently pulled away from her, only now did he realize he was taller than her by a head. He smiled as she looked up towards him, her eyes asking him not to leave. Shaking his head he moved back a little.

"I'm sorry…I have to finish what I started…" he told her as he turned around.

"Before you go…" Erza started as he felt a surge of power coming from her. He turned around and saw her extending a gift towards him. From its long design he could only guess it was some sort of sword. "Happy birthday…" she said with a small smile as the blond looked down at his gift and gently unwrapped it.

His eyes widened as he looked at the sword in his hands, it was the sword he had seen when he was ten years old in _Armifer_. How could he forget the sword he had always wanted? The hilt was made out of leather with a gem at its bottom. The blade was long, longer than normal short swords and thick. The end was pointy; he was sure Erza had polished it over the years and sharpened it. There was even a scabbard for it, it was a normal design one.

With a smile he looked towards the girl. "Thank you." He said as tears dropped from his eyes, normal tears from his right eye and much to Erza's shock, blood tears from his left. She immediately moved to his side and wiped them away with a sad look on her face.

"Please come back…" she said as the blond opened his mouth to speak. "…if not now…soon…" she said weakly as the blond nodded.

"I will…I promise." He told her as he bent forward, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, for everything." He whispered as he stood up and started walking away with the sword in his hand.

Erza stood rooted in place looking at his retreating figure, a tear dropped from her eye as the image of him crying blood from his left eye flashed in front of her eyes. _"Please stay safe…don't die on us Naruto."_ She thought looking towards the blond that was slowly vanishing in the distance. _"I love you…"_ she thought with a smile on her face.


	6. Chapter 6

**Note: Alright, time to clarify something – I was forced to post this chapter up faster just cause I knew people wouldn't re-read the other chapter if I placed this note there….Number of people confused by last chapter reached up to 8 if I am right...  
**

**Naruto lost to the ninja because: the ninja is trained to be an assassin, Naruto is not nor did he have any ninja training. The ninja was trained in speed and stealth, Naruto was not. If you cannot see your opponent nor guess his next move, how do you plan to fight? And if you can't even sense him? Then what? **

**The reason why Naruto won against demons (Inferno as well and other mages) was due to the fact that he could track their movements and predict what their next moves would be. **

**Did I now clarify why he lost? His eyes could not catch the ninja's movement; he could not keep track with him and fight properly. Why was there only 1 ninja? That will be revealed later on in the story in a special arc. **

**You will find out that I don't tend to prolong battles too much unless its a very important battle (or the opponent is actually really strong). Also, this will be my last incredibly long note...please try to think outside the box, this is not ninja Naruto, stop thinking about the ninja Naruto and think about the Mage Naruto...thank you.**

**And to the one that said Naruto is losing battles...how many battles did he lose pray tell me? It was 1 (Erza being an exception) ... is number 1 that big of a number? If there are people here that are thinking I'm going to write a God-Like Naruto then you are wrong, I never write God-Like, all my Naruto's will have weakness and a weak moment...a good story is not one where the Hero constantly mows through the enemy...(its just a weak excuse nowadays to write something)  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 6**

A year had passed since the incident with the Konoha ninja, Naruto didn't like thinking about it too much. Every time he did think about it he felt unsecured and that he was always being spied on. He never really understood why his mother didn't want him to attend the shinobi academy, maybe she wanted him to have a normal life or maybe she was afraid that he would become a weapon like the ninja said he was.

Whatever the case was he didn't ponder on it. He respected her decision; after all, she had never mistreated him and was always there to protect him. But now, he was on his own. He would have to face Konoha on his own if they tried to come after him again, the only thing he had to be careful of is to not let them know who his friends were and use them as a ticket to get to him.

Over the course of that one year he had tracked down Mistgun, it wasn't easy and if the blond was right he would have never found him if he didn't want to be found. It was like the mage knew that Naruto was looking for him and left trails for him to follow.

He teamed up with the mage that had rescued him when he fought the ninja and did several jobs with him. He had yet to return to the guild however, even though Mistgun told him it would be good for him to just step inside and see how the place was fairing he didn't want to do that.

Every time they went to take a job from the board Naruto would wait outside for Mist, hidden from view. Mist usually took three jobs with him when leaving, being teamed up with the blond meant they would be able to handle more than one job, being able to meet the deadlines for all of them. It was as they thought; they had completed quite a lot of jobs gaining a lot of respect and reputation for what they did.

While many still didn't know who they were, their faces or real identities as well, there were certain individuals that had started monitoring the blond. The council had heard many rumors and facts about the blond mage, at first they dismissed them when they heard he was part of Fairy Tail, the destructive nature of the guild made them think the blond was just like his comrades.

It was only later that they learned the blond was something different, collateral damage was rare when the blond took a mission, if there was such a thing it was minimal. There were only two times when the blond had actually razed something to the ground, something that he didn't have to. He paid for the repairs with his own money, in their eyes that said something.

Questioning the people that the blond had helped over the years they learned that the mage was completely different from what they expected. He was humble towards the people, helping with even the smallest problems, not even bothering to ask for a reward if they never mentioned one. While he had no rank mostly every mage you would ask about him would say he is well deserving of S-rank.

While his abilities were mostly a mystery as very few people witnessed them or very few of his targets survived an encounter with him, it was widely known he could manipulate fire at his will. Add to that the fact that he received his nickname from a Demon – or so the blond claimed – it made him even more interesting in the council's eyes.

They had tried to get in contact with him on numerous occasions, yet it was easier said than done. The blond was a master at stealth, he could vanish even on a large field with no forest or trees in sight, rumors spread that Ignis Deus would only show himself to those that needed help. He didn't wish to talk to people unless it was related to a mission, it made people wonder why.

The council went on to investigate this, they called Makarov to question him yet they found out that even the guild master hardly knew anything about the blond. While he could give a description of how he looked like before he was twelve, it wasn't enough to help the council track down the blond and invite him for discussions.

Makarov was curious what they wanted to talk to with the blond, he had to admit that even he wanted to talk with the blond, but that was because he hadn't seen him for years. Yet the council that just heard about him, he hoped they didn't want something drastic or wanted to accuse him of something. He doubted the last bit, but you could never be too sure with them, especially those two younger members.

Naruto knew fully-well that the council wanted an audience with him, but he didn't want to present in front of them yet. So he did the best he could in avoiding their messengers, which proved quite easy. Even the mages they sent didn't seem to be able to spot him.

He smiled and shook his head, someday he will let them find him, but for now, he had other matters to attend to. Looking down at the map in his hands he scratched the bridge of his nose and wondered why he had accepted to do this mission alone in the first place. Apparently Mist had some other job he needed to take care of and wanted the blond to handle this one alone.

It wasn't that the blond didn't trust his partner's judgment; it was more like he didn't trust the employee, which was a first actually. Naruto was currently in the country of Bellum, at the outskirts of the small city Yulvin. He could see the massive keep, Sarmi in the distance.

His mission was simple, he had to quell down the people that seemed to be preparing for a riot, or a coup. Usually people didn't go rioting for no reason so he dug up as much as he could on the local Baron. There wasn't much on him, the little information he could dig up was that the Baron liked to tax the people a lot, had a very bad taste in decorations and wardrobe and his laws were pretty…confusing at best.

Rolling up the map and placing it back in his pocket the blond stood up and started walking towards the city. He grumbled under his breath, how was he supposed to quell down more than a thousand people? That was just too much. After all, he wasn't going to hurt them or anything like that.

As he entered the city he could feel the atmosphere thicken, it put the blond on alert. He was still wearing the same clothing from before, this time however he opted to hide his face under a cowl. Over his scar from the ninja he had a black eye-patch. On his back was the sword Erza had given him in its scabbard. A blue ribbon was tied to the swords top end of the hilt.

He noticed people staring at him as he walked down the street, he even saw some of them hide their weapons as their friends whispered something in their ears. He could hear murmurs as he walked deeper into the city, people saying his nickname to others. Had they already realized who he was? Then again the sword and clothing was a dead give away, the clothes more than the sword he imagined.

While making his way to the keep the blond spotted a bar for mages, he stopped and looked at the entrance for a bit before walking inside.

As he entered the bar all eyes turned towards him, the vast majority of the mages there immediately tensed like he was going to attack them at any given moment. He walked over to the bartender and sat at one of the chairs.

"What … can I get you sir?" the woman asked, she stuttered and seemed to shiver as she looked at him. He raised an eyebrow at that, was he really frightening? He had made sure to send a message – by doing the right missions – that he will always help people.

"A beer…" he answered as the woman nodded and turned around grabbing a random bottle and bending down with it, he heard her open the bottle. As she stood up and handed the blond the bottle he took it in his hands and shook it several times.

With the corner of his eye he looked at the woman and saw her tense as he did that. He moved the beer at his nose and smelled it before moving it away. The blond looked at the bottle for what seemed like hours, the atmosphere so was tense you could cut it with a knife.

"Sleep drug." The blond stated in a low voice as he saw the woman try to stifle a surprised gasp, she had been caught.

He looked around and saw all the mages preparing to fight, most likely him. Looking at the woman he moved the bottle out of the way and placed his hands under his chin. "Tell me…why did you try to poison me?" he asked as the woman stood petrified in front of the blond.

His eye narrowed as flame shot behind him melting the ice spike. "Are you really going to try it?" he asked loud enough for them to hear. A few of the mages took several steps back at that while others, despite how much they were shivering stood their ground.

"We don't care how strong you are Ignis Deus…" one of them said in a shaky voice. "…we won't let you help Baron Duku!" he shouted as the blond raised an eyebrow, his lifted his head and turned towards them.

"Huh?" he asked intelligently as everyone looked at him strangely. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I understand…" he told them as they all blinked in surprise.

"Didn't you take the job request that the Baron had posted?" one of the mages asked, he was in his mid thirties.

"I did take it, what of it?" Naruto asked as they all looked at each other. A man in his forties stepped forward and looked at the blond straight in the eye.

"Didn't you find it strange why people are rioting? Why he would want a mage to quell the rioters?" he asked making the blond bring his hand up to his chin and scratch it.

"Yes…" he answered slowly. "…I did think it was strange but my digging up on him didn't bring out anything more than the fact he loves to tax way beyond the normal rate." He stated as the mages started whispering among each other.

"It's not only that…" he heard someone say in a weak voice, he turned around and looked at the bartender who was looking down at the ground in sadness. "…all of them first came here for the exact same job…until they realized what was actually happening." She said as she looked towards the blond.

"And what, pray tell me, is actually happening here?" he asked leaning forward, the girl flinched a little at him.

"I'm sorry…for before…" she said looking towards the bottle.

The mage looked at the bottle and grabbed it, he turned it upside down and started pouring the contents on the floor. As the last drop fell on the floor he looked up at the woman and slammed the empty bottle on the counter making her flinch.

"So…what is happening here?" he asked again as the woman started fidgeting.

"Maybe…it's better if I show you." She replied in a weak voice as Naruto nodded and stood up. He followed the woman outside in the streets; they were heading for the city center if the blond was right.

As they walked he could feel something strange, there was a dark aura lingering over the city. The closer they got to the center Naruto noticed that the number of people around them started dwindling; it was like they were avoiding the city center.

The moment they entered the town center Naruto's eyes widened at what he saw; in the middle of the center stood five people, hanged. They faces were burned and their clothes covered in blood.

"It's what happens to those that disobey the law." The woman murmured silently as Naruto scratched his chin.

"The man is a fool." He stated making her look at him with surprise. "The Royal Army would have noticed this by now…"

"He bribed them…" she interrupted the blond making him look at her strangely.

"That's impossible, they know better than to accept bribes." The blond said glaring towards her and making the young woman flinch.

"They did…" a voice interrupted them as they both turned around facing one of the mages from the bar. "…but that's not all, those that tried to go against his will were killed…most of us suspect he's working with a Dark Guild." The man said as the blond turned around and looked at the bodies.

He raised an eyebrow as he walked forward towards the bodies and moved his hand over ones of them, on the chest. His eyes narrowed as he noticed a mark there. _"So…they've been spying on us the whole time…"_ he thought as he looked towards the keep.

"Are there any Guards that aren't dead or didn't side with him?" the blond asked as he turned around and walked away from the charred corpses.

"No, at least not that I know of." The mage replied.

"Did you send out word to the council, or call for help?" he asked looking towards the mage and then towards the woman, both nodded and looked down at the ground.

"All our messages were intercepted, those that tried to leave…couldn't." the mage replied "They enacted some sort of barrier, you can enter, but you can't leave." He said as Naruto frowned, this was one risky plan that the Baron was playing, people would eventually notice something was amiss with the city and the more people that would vanish here the more attention it would bring to it.

He wondered what they were actually after. The Baron, in his opinion, was a small time player in all of this. Considering there were mages from a Dark Guild here it meant that they were the ones that Naruto would have to focus on more than anything else. Looking back towards the corpses he wondered how many mages the Baron had hired.

"Alright…I see why you all dropped the job." Naruto stated. "And I can see why people would want to riot." It would be the first time he would go against his client. This had never happened before, he knew it was a bad idea to take this job, but now it was too late to think over it.

As he turned to leave, the mage called out for him. "Wait, where are you going?"

Naruto looked towards him for a second before continuing his walk. "I will get to the bottom of this." He stated, there were questions that the Baron had to answer and he would have to find out what those mages were doing in this city. He had yet to meet a Dark Guild that wasn't up to no good.

**xXx**

Word traveled through town, the great mage Ignis Deus was on his way to the Baron's keep to question him and maybe even end his tyranny. Yet people were still uncertain of the outcome, while they had heard what the blond was capable of they still had their doubts he could win against the Baron and the Dark Mages.

The mages trapped in the town sent out word to those ready to stand up for themselves, rallying them to start a coup against the Baron and take him down from his seat of power. There were a total of ten mages, eleven with the blond. Even if the Baron had a few Royal Guards under his control they would be able to win against him.

Word spread around the city, many grabbed all the weapons they could find, the two local blacksmiths provided the people with all the weapons and armor they had before the Baron shut them down and denied them the resources to produce any more. The little they had was enough to equip fifty men.

Under the cover of darkness they cut down several trees and produced old fashioned bows for those that could use them, the number of archers far exceeded the number of melee fighters. By the break of dawn, the people were more than prepared to go against their enemy and put of end to their suffering. Lead by the ten mages, they moved through the streets with torches in their hands.

During that night Naruto had been trying to get inside the keep by any means possible. He was lucky the keep had no moat, but the booby traps set around the wall posed enough danger for him. It took him several hours to find a way inside the keep, he knew that going directly to the door was a bad idea, he had been spotted in the city center through that strange spell.

The blond managed to climb the walls in the end, it was hard enough with the night patrol, while he could have easily taken them down he didn't want to alert the enemy of his presence. Once he was over the walls he studied the keep, the courtyard had enough open space for a small army to move around freely, the main building where the Baron was at had the main entrance guarded by a mage.

It was hard to see him, the mage wasn't standing guard in front of the door, he was smart. He had hidden himself behind a woodpile. In this darkness a normal person wouldn't have been able to spot him there. Looking around the blond noticed there are no other entrances into the main building. He scowled at that, maybe the hidden entrance or exit was somewhere outside, beyond the gates and maybe even beyond the city itself.

With no other choice, Naruto moved silently on the walls intent on finding a way to climb the main building and enter through one of the windows. It wasn't that hard, whoever had built this keep made a small error. The main building was connected to the wall at one point making it easy for the blond to start climbing up. All he had to do is knock out a few guards stationed there.

After several hours of climbing the blond managed to enter the main building, using the shadows he scouted the entire place, searching for the Baron and the remaining mages. He eventually found them in one of the large rooms, probably the dinning room.

The Baron was at the table stuffing his face away with various foods while three mages were present on the other end of the table. The tallest seemed to be the leader, he was wearing a long robe and his face was covered making it impossible for the blond to recognize him. The one to his left was wearing a simple shirt and baggy jeans, three massive chains covered his chest and he had a pair of sunglasses on his eyes.

The last one, to the right, was wearing a cowl over his face, a jacket, underneath which he wore a black shirt with a skull design on it. The blond could see several pouches tied to his legs and hidden under the jacket, he wondered what he was carrying in there.

Stepping closer the blond listened in on the conversation.

"So you're telling me that my job was now picked up by Ignis Deus?" the Baron asked with a mouthful of meat.

"Yes…we told you not to send out so many papers, ten mages would have been enough." The leader stated in a low voice as the man seemed to ignore the comment.

"The artifact would make us rich and powerful, the more mages and human lives we have to fuel it the better!" he shouted slamming his fist on the table and spraying wine on the leaders robe.

The leader took out a napkin and cleaned his robe. "I suggest you keep your voice down…don't forget who we are." He stated as the man suppressed a shudder and moved back in his chair.

"I hope you'll deal with Ignis Deus." The Baron demanded with a growl.

"He's as good as dead." The leader replied as he turned to face the blond. His eyes widened as the other two members suddenly vanished.

Without a second thought the blond darted out of his hiding spot and started running through the corridors. He spared a glance behind him and his eyes narrowed as he saw two large man-eating plants chasing after him. Creating two fireballs in his hands he turned around and threw them towards the plants.

Just as they were about to hit them two massive shields fazed into existence in front of the plants, absorbing the fire, as they fazed out of the existence the plants shot forward towards Naruto. The blond jumped in a nearby chamber and slammed the door shut. He then moved to the window and jumped out. In the middle of his fall his entire body was entangled by flames, the fire then shot towards the village before vanishing in the night with the blond mage.

"Hm…I wonder what your next step will be mage." The leader stated as he watched the blond vanish over the city.

As morning drew the keep guards could hear people approaching the gates, their eyes widened as they saw that all the townspeople had taken up arms and were now at their gates, demanding that they be let inside to deal with the Baron.

Of course when the guards didn't comply with their demands the mages stepped forward, two of them being able to use earth magic smashed the gates open letting the angered mob storm the place.

At that moment the guards armed themselves and ran towards the entrance to meet with the oncoming force. While they were outnumbered greatly, they were better trained and had better armor and weapons.

As the battle raged outside, in the keeps courtyard the Baron glared at the rioters. Turning towards the four mages he nodded at them as the leader nodded back and sent out his lackeys to deal with the enemy.

"Its time…" he stated as he walked away, heading towards the dungeon, a cruel smirk on his face.

Outside, the guards were falling one by one, rendered unconscious by the rioters. The mages made sure to assist the people in any way they could by immobilizing the enemy. When the blond arrived at the scene he was surprised at how well they had handled things.

"Looks like we didn't need your help after all…" one of the mages stated as he spotted the blond entering through the crushed gates.

"Don't be so sure yet…" he said as the doors of the main building were flung open and three mages stepped out. The attackers took a step back in shock recognizing them, mages of the Dark Alliance.

"Well, well…what do we have here? Some peasants thinking they can free themselves? And some lowly mages thinking they can make a difference?" they taunted as a large numbers of soldiers suddenly walked out of the main building. They were all wearing plate armor, they didn't know the Baron had these many guards under his command after bribing them.

"Husks…" Naruto said as the mages looked towards him "…one of the mages is controlling the armors from inside." He then looked around and spotted the one with the chains "Him…to be more precise."

Said mage smirked, not even fazed by the blond's declaration. "Oh…it seems like I was found…" he stated as the one next to him slapped his forehead.

"I told you not to wear those chains, they're a dead-giveaway."

"It doesn't matter to me…" the blond said taking a step forward. "…you all die here."

"I'd like to see you try boy!" the mage yelled as three armors rushed towards the blond. Before he could even counter them however three rioters jumped in front of the blond and parried the attacks.

"We can handle these guys, you take down the mages!" one of them shouted as the rest shouted in agreement. The blond grinned as he looked at the mages.

"Can you deal with these three?" he asked "I need to deal with their leader." He stated as they nodded and assumed battle stances.

Naruto rushed towards the three mages, jumping over the armors. As he reached them he dodged their attempts to catch him and rushed past them. They turned to follow the blond only to have the other ten mages surround. They glared at their opponents before charging them.

As he entered the keep Naruto sensed a lot of energy coming from the basement. He rushed through the corridors looking for the entrance that lead towards the basement, upon finding it he slammed the door open and started his descend.

At the end of the stairs he met another door, he kicked it open and was blinded by the large amount of light in the chamber. Cracking his eye open he tried to figure out what was going on. He could see the Dark mage in the middle of the room, in front of him was a strange scepter, it was floating in the air and glowing.

"You're too late!" the mage shouted as light shot in the air, going through the ceiling. He then recognized the scepter, it was one of the artifacts from the battle against Zeref. If he remembered right, the scepter absorbed the souls of any living being strengthening the wielder. If the soul was that of a mage it gave the wielder the mages ability.

Naruto scowled as he summoned his fire, he created a fireball and flung it towards the mage. Before it could even get close enough to him it dissipated before completely vanishing. The mage smirked as Naruto cursed, a nullifying spell. He unsheathed his sword and charged forward, if his enemy was going to nullify all his magical attacks then he would have to confront him face to face.

The man smirked as a beam of light shot down from the ceiling and covered him. Massive spikes of ice shot from the ground, Naruto's eyes widened as he jumped backwards avoiding the spikes.

"One down…nine to go." He said with a sinister smirk as Naruto's eyes widened in horror.

"You won't get the rest!" he roared as he charged forward again.

The mage turned to face the blond with a grin. "The ritual is already on-going…it doesn't need me anymore to do what it has to." He said as he as created a lance made out of ice. He flung it towards the blond who raised his sword.

The lance collided with the sword, the blond was pushed back by the throws strength, the lance however shattered as it collided with the sword. He lowered his sword and jumped to the side avoiding several ice spikes, he watched as they hit the wall behind him, they shattered at the impact but left a massive hole in the wall.

Turning towards the mage he swung his sword in his direction as a wall of flame moved towards his enemy colliding with another set of spikes. The spikes melted from the fire which in turn dissipated due to the nullifying spell.

Naruto jumped back on his feet and ran towards the mage, he jumped up as the mage froze the ground underneath his feet. He turned in mid air and touched the ceiling with his feet, using all his strength, he pushed himself towards the mage entering the nullifying spells field. The mage's eyes narrowed as he created a large ice wall in front of him

The blond collided with the wall, his sword cutting the wall in half. "It seems like even your own spells are nullified here." He stated with a smirk as the mage smirked back.

"Think again…" he said as he extended his hand towards the blond and five black orbs shot towards him. Naruto's eyes widened as he jumped out of the way and deflected one of the orbs with his sword.

It proved to be a bad idea as the orb exploded as it collided with the blond's sword, throwing him back out of the field. He coughed as he stood back up and glared towards his opponent. His eyes widened as another ray of light shot from the ceiling on top of the mage who started laughing. He turned towards the blond with a maniacal grin on his face.

The mage slammed his foot on the ground creating a shockwave that threw the blond backwards into the wall. He raised his hand up as a massive rock shot from the ground, he punched it sending it towards the blond. Naruto's eyes widened as he jumped out of the way, the rock collided with the wall making the entire place shake from the impact.

"_Tch…I need to get serious or else he will kill the remaining mages."_ He thought as he moved his eye patch over his other eye. He stood up with his left eye closed, he took a deep breath and opened his eye.

The mage took a step back in shock at what he was seeing. No longer was he staring into Naruto's blue eye, he was staring in a red slitted eye, it reminded him of a demons eye. As the blond opened his left eye fire appeared around him, it looks stronger than before and untamed. Naruto sheathed his sword and moved his hands in front of him, in a cross and glared at the dark mage.

"_Its time…"_ he thought, it would be the first time using this technique with the demon eye. "Summoning: Ethereal form." The blond whispered as fire shot all around him and started moving towards him. The dark mage brought his hands up to his face to cover himself from the intense heat radiating from the blond.

A powerful roar echoed in the chamber as he lowered his hands and stood rooted in place. Before him stood some sort of monstrosity made out of fire. It was twice as big as the blond, barely fitting in the chamber. Its eyes glowed red like the fire its body was composed of. It had no distinct form, the fire constantly moved around giving different shapes all the time.

"You think that will be enough to stop me?" he shouted as he fired an arrow made out of ice. The arrow collided with the flames; steam surrounded him as the attack melted upon contact. The beast roared once again as it started floating towards the mage.

It entered the nullifying spell and the mage grinned, there was no way the blond would be able to maintain that spell while inside the spells area. To his horror however, the spell shattered right before his eyes, the beast unaffected by the barrier he had placed. Fire started moving around the blond's hand, in a matter of seconds a large claymore made out of fire appeared in his hand.

"_Its time you die!"_ his voice resonated in the chamber as the man started throwing numerous ice based attacks towards the blond. All of them however seemed to fail in stopping the blond, he kept moving forward.

In a last attempt to protect himself the mage summoned another wall of ice, the blond raised his claymore and then slammed it on the ice, cutting it in half and filling the room with steam. The dark mage, unable to see what was going on never saw the fire blade collide with his head, cutting him in half and burning his body until nothing but ash was left.

Naruto then turned his attention towards the scepter, his hand extended towards it, grabbing it and canceling the ritual in the process. If he was right, then the scepter was the one that enacted the barrier around the city and now it would have fallen. He roared as his body shattered into numerous pillars of fire that shot out of the chamber through the door he had entered.

The flames moved through the keeps hallway until reaching the courtyard, there they united and re-created the blond in his ethereal form. The fighting came to an abrupt halt as they gazed upon the creature in front of them. The fire mage looked around the courtyard, he could see the two mages that had their souls ripped from their bodies, he didn't know how to return the souls from the scepter however. He continued to look around until he saw two of the three Dark mages. One of them was already lying on the ground, unconscious.

Fire shot from his body and moved towards him opponents, the two mages immediately used their spells to try and block the attack. One of them however died in an instant, apparently said mage could control the plants around him, against fire it didn't help him at all. The second one however managed to block the attack by summoning a large stone golem.

The golem moved towards the blond and tried to punch him, its fist moved right through his body, not affecting him at all. The blond grabbed the golems arm and slammed it on the ground, the ground shook as the golem shattered and turned into dust. He then turned to face the mage who seemed unable to move from shock and fear.

He extended his hand towards the mage and fire spikes shot from his palm, it impaled the man killing him instantly. As the mage fell on the ground with smoke coming out of his wounds Naruto turned to face the townspeople and the mages. The mages moved in front of the people to protect them, he expected this; it was the first time anyone ever saw this form.

"_The Baron is__ on the last floor…the leader of the Dark Mages is dead. Do what you wish with the unconscious one and the Baron."_ Naruto stated as his body once again split into numerous pillars of fire and shot towards the nearby forest.

As they reached the forest they reconstructed his ethereal form. Naruto canceled the spell, the fire dispersed and started moving around his body as he fell on the ground. He quickly closed his left eye and placed the eye patch over it. The fire was no longer wild, it became tame once more making it easy for the blond to dispel it.

He shook his head as he took a deep breath, he never expected the fire to be so wild when using his left eye. But the job was done, he looked at the glowing scepter in his hand. Placing it on the ground he took out a sheet of paper and started scribbling on it. While he didn't know many sealing spells he knew one that he would be able to use on the scepter until he found someone to completely seal the scepter.

As he finished scribbling, he placed the specter on the paper. "Seal!" slowly, the scepter's glow vanished and two numbers appeared on it. Both of them were a nine. Satisfied with his work the blond stood up and covered his head, he walked into the forest, heading back towards Fiore.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 7**

"_Is there really such a thing as a mage that can see the future?"_

"_**There is … it's both a curse and a gift given to certain mages."**_

"_So…what she said…will it really happen like that?"_

"…_**I…don't know master…I don't know."**_

"_I'm afraid…of dying like that."_

Naruto's eyes snapped open as he frantically look around. He relaxed remembering where he was, he had been walking for the past three days and had fallen asleep in the forest, in midday. He brought his hands to his face calming down, why was he so afraid? He shook his head and suppressed a shudder; it was moments like these that reminded him that he wasn't invincible, that he was still human.

Standing back on his feet he looked up towards the sky, it was night. A sigh escaped his lips as he closed his eyes. He had managed to find a mage specialized in sealing, it was hard to make him keep quiet about the scepter, but it was worth it. The mage was from a small village from Bosco.

He shook his head and opened his eyes. Dusting himself, the blond started walking away, he still had a long way to go until reaching Magnolia. It annoyed him greatly that the train from Bosco to Fiore was unavailable, something had happened on the tracks, a fight between some bandits and members of the local guild. He didn't pay attention to that.

He came to a halt and looked around, he heard movement. "Come out!" he called, he was hoping to came face to face with bandits, however it was not the case. Several Royal Guard scouts appeared in front of the blond making him narrow his eyes.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" demanded one of the scouts pointing his short sword at the blond's throat. Said blond growled as fire appeared around him.

"Be careful…" the blond said as he made his face visible with the use of his fire. The man gasped and immediately moved away from the blond.

"Ignis Deus…" he whispered as the fire died down and the rest of the scouts started whispering amongst each other.

"We apologize, we didn't know if you were a mercenary or a bandit." One of the scouts started bowing slightly towards the blond. The rest of the scouts immediately followed suit making the blond inwardly sigh, he didn't need all this.

His eyebrow then shot up as he remembered what the scout said. "Mercenaries?" he asked not understanding, he could understand them looking for bandits to clear them out or to pinpoint their location to the main army – or mages that took a job in clearing out a bandit camp.

"Yes…" the apparent leader said stepping forward. "…mercenaries hired by the local nobles and bandits, also hired by them." He stated as Naruto got interested, why would nobles hire bandits? Hiring mercenaries was normal, they usually had them do some meager tasks here and there.

"Why would they hire both?" he asked as silence fell upon them.

The scouts didn't reply to the question, the leader however looked to be in deep thought.

"Maybe I shouldn't say it…but maybe…you can help us…" he said as the blond's attention turned towards the man, he was interested now. It wasn't normal for the Royal Guard to ask help from someone, add to the fact that scouts rarely traveled in such large numbers.

"Times are changing, the old system is falling and the nobles don't like the idea of losing their power." The man said while shaking his head. "So they are trying to get their power back by taking down Castle Tazhok."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, the castle was filled with Royal Guard members. "Even so…they will just lose their power again when the main army is sent."

"They don't seem to care…" the scout stated. "…and most of the forces stationed at Tazhok are gone on a mission, we are down by half." He said grimly as Naruto nodded at that.

"What exactly were you doing here?" he inquired as the man answered immediately.

"We went to the nearby town that wasn't under the nobles reach and sent a message to the main army. Even so, it will take them two or three days to reach us, we were heading back to assist in the defense."

The blond mage nodded as he turned towards the Castle's general direction. He had seen it in his travels but never got close enough, they didn't want people to get close to the castle as it held artifacts of great power and was one of the main seats of power in Bosco. If the nobles got their hands on the Castle they could gain a temporal seat of power.

The greatest danger however was the artifacts, they could sell them to the highest bidder and if said bidder was a dark guild it wouldn't be good at all. There was also the chance that word would spread out, that the Royal Guard was no longer stationed at the Castle and only a couple of bandits and mercenaries under the command of the nobles were there. Dark Guilds would be swarming the place to get their hands on the artifacts.

"Do you need help?" the blond asked as the man smiled under the cover of darkness.

"We would greatly appreciate it great mage." He stated as the blond nodded and told him to lead the way.

**xXx**

Naruto was awed as he saw the castle, while he did see it in the past it was from a great distance when traveling by train. He wondered if the fact that the trains didn't work was actually because of the hired goons, if it was a way to make sure no one saw the castle being attacked or to make sure the reinforcements wouldn't arrive by train.

Whatever the case, he didn't ponder on it. While being escorted to the current commander of the Castle, Naruto made sure to check on the walls status. He was surprised to see how damaged they were; clearly the Castle had been attacked before. Tazhok was situated in a remote location, not very remote however, but it was far enough from a town or village so that no one would come close to it.

The castle was situated in between two mountains; behind it was the mountain once again. The top of the castle was protected by a magical barrier that halted any attacks that might come from above. Usually two mages always channeled energy into the barrier on a weekly basis. The castle was composed out of three walls, two outer walls and one that final wall that kept the main structure sealed off.

The first wall now was gone from what the blond could see, it was lying in rubble and the second wall was half way gone. He was surprised by this, he had read that the castle had withstood numerous attacks in the past without getting scratched. But maybe that was because it had so many troops stationed then.

"They hired freelance mages…" the leader of the scouts said as the blond nodded, he now understood how the walls could have fallen so easily. Even if the castles garrison was down to half, it was enough to take down any siege equipment that the enemy had. Mages were another thing, the two mages that were always stationed at the castle weren't enough to handle more than four.

He didn't know how powerful the mages trained for the Royal Guard were, he had never fought one and trying to pick a fight with one wasn't the smartest idea. They would arrest you in a matter of seconds no matter who you were.

The group passed the second wall's gates, the guards there double checked Naruto before actually letting him in, it was precaution, while they had heard rumors of Ignis Deus and his deeds they wanted to be sure he was actually on their side and didn't come to this place to steal the artifacts.

Passing through the final gates proved easier, it seemed like these guards trusted their comrades stationed at the outer wall. As they walked through the courtyard the blond could see soldiers of the Royal Guard laying unconscious on the ground, others being treated by medics and he saw even a few dead guardsmen.

As they arrived at the main building the guards opened the doors letting Naruto and the Scouts inside. Naruto's eyes widened at the sheer size of the chamber, at the very end of the chamber he could see a throne, in the past this had been a seat of power for Kings. In the middle of the room he could see a large table, several maps were on the table and three people stood around it, talking amongst each other and inspecting the maps.

The leader of the scouts walked forward, the movement caught the attention of those at the table. They turned to face the scout who saluted his superiors and proceeded to give his report.

"We were able to relay the message; we hadn't encountered any enemies on our way there and back. However, we did encounter a mage from the guild Fairy Tail on our way back." He said stepping away and letting the three see the blond.

"Ah…Ignis Deus." One of them said with a smile on his face. He was a man in his late fifties if the blond was correct, he had a large beard, brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing plate armor and a massive claymore on his back. "I am Knight Commander Klaus." He stated extending his hand towards the blond.

Naruto smiled back and shook the man's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Knight Commander." He said as the man nodded.

"I assume Yuja told you about our situation…I hope you came to assist us." His voice was low at that, after all, he couldn't force the blond to help them, he could just pack his stuff and leave if he wanted to.

"Yes he did and I will gladly help out." Naruto stated as the man brightened up.

"Wonderful!" he shouted moving his arms to the side, he then turned to the last two members. "I would like to introduce you to our strategist, Guren…" the thirty year old man named Guren bowed towards the blond, he was wearing plain clothes. "…and our lieutenant, Livia." He motioned towards the woman who studied the blond before nodding in his direction. She seemed to be the youngest of them all, had blond hair and brown eyes. She was wearing plate armor as Klaus, a short sword strapped to her waist and a bow on her back.

"Now, the situation is pretty grim." Klaus started as he motioned for the blond to step closer. He did as he was told and looked over the map. "We have about five hundred troops left, the enemy however…" he paused there and frowned.

"Double in number…" said Livia slowly "…and those are just the mercenaries….we have no idea how many bandits they hired." She continued slowly as the blond bit his thumb lightly. The situation was very grim, to think that the nobles managed to hire that many mercenaries and a couple of bandits on top of that.

"What are our options?" Naruto asked as they all looked towards him "We can't just sit and hold the fort hoping reinforcements would arrive sooner or later." He stated as the commander sighed and nodded at that

"While that is true we simply cannot leave this place, it would leave it open and they could just storm right in and take it from under our noses." He told the blond who seemed to think over the answer "And don't think about going out there alone…even you can't take down that many mercenaries."

"Want to make a bet?" the blond asked with a grin as the knight-commander shook his head and sighed.

"No bets…you have to realize it's next to impossible." He said sternly "I'd rather have you here helping the defenses than out there fighting against all of them at once."

The blond sighed as he conceded, there was no point in rushing against the enemy if they outnumbered you that much. He looked back at the map as the commander started talking with the strategist.

"Question…" the blond started drawing their attention. "Do you happen to have Siege Weapons here? Catapults, Ballista's…anything like that." He asked as they looked at each other strangely.

**xXx**

"This is all that we have." Klaus said as ten Guardsmen opened the large doors to the workshop. Inside were eight catapults, already assembled. He scratched his chin and looked at the map in his hands and the plans the strategist had devised.

"Time to make a change then…" he told the men with a grin on his face. "I want four of them stationed on the final walls, as high as you can, the other four will be in the courtyard between the outer and inner wall." He stated as he turned to face the inner wall.

"Archers will be stationed on both walls, the number of archers on the inner wall will have to exceed those on the outer wall." he told them as Guren stepped forward.

"No offense…" he started as Naruto turned towards him "…but shouldn't we have more on the outer wall, to crush as many as we can before they can even reach it?" he asked as the blond nodded.

"That is true, however…we have the catapults and you have me to deal with that." He told them with a grin. "All of our close range fighters will be guarding the catapults between the inner and outer wall, we will lost the outer wall but we will not lose the inner wall. Tomorrow night we will stop them in their tracks and completely crush them."

Guren looked skeptical at the blond's plan, it didn't seem right at all, in fact it seemed way too simple to actually work. Still, he saw Klaus acknowledge the plan and at that point there was nothing else he could apart from sighing and hoping the blond wouldn't screw this up.

Naruto gave them the last instructions and sent them on their way, he turned towards the workshop to oversee the handling of the catapults, it would be bad to lose them now of all times. He watched as the soldiers moved the catapults where he wanted them and nodded at them as they returned.

As the sun rose over the horizon Naruto let out a deep breath and sat down near the workshop. He looked towards the sky and smiled, once he completed this mission he would head home, he missed everyone and wondered how things were fairing back home.

He looked around, Guardsmen were running around carrying weapons and armors, they were preparing for tonight's attack. He could see some of them bore worried looks on their faces, Naruto wasn't worried about the upcoming battle however, he knew they would be able to stand their ground and win this.

Turning back to watch the sky he closed his eyes and sighed as the sun rays hit his face. A smile appeared on his face as he drifted to sleep.

**xXx**

Cursing could be heard through the storm, the heavy rain made it nearly impossible for anyone to hear the blond curse. As night fell clouds gathered around the castle and before anyone knew it rain started pouring down on them. It wouldn't have been that bad if they could see what was happening in front of their eyes, the rain had lowered their view considerably.

Naruto was pacing around the outer wall in anger, his eyes never leaving the path towards the castle. He could vaguely see fire in the distance, multiple pecks of fire. It whispered towards him, telling him of the large number of enemies approaching the castle, they would arrive in just a few minutes.

He ordered the men to assume positions and the catapult operators to prepare themselves. They loaded the catapults and awaited the blond's signal. The blond mage extended his open palm towards the advancing army, a stream of fire shot from his palm towards the army illuminating the area.

Naruto cursed as he saw how many they were, but they were still too far away to strike. He waited for them to draw closer. The anticipation was killing them, Naruto for once wanted the battle to start already, waiting for them to come to him was driving him insane. Finally, they heard their war-cry, they started their charge.

He raised his hand up and waited, he could see them in the distance, getting closer and closer. "Catapults!" he shouted as the men tensed "Loose!" he ordered lowered his hand, the men immediately released the breaks letting the war machines do their work. Eight massive rocks were flung into the air, crashing on the ground moments later and squishing those unfortunate to be in their path.

"Archers!" Livia shouted as those on the outer and inner walls prepared for her order. Naruto's eyes suddenly widened as he saw a large hail of arrows dropping from the sky. Reacting quickly, he summoned his fire and created a fiery dome above the outer wall. As the enemies arrows connected with the dome they were burned down completely, the steel tips landed on the ground, a few feet away from the wall.

"Loose!" he heard the woman order; her archers immediately released a salvo of arrows into the sky. Cries soon resonated through the rain as most of the arrows struck down their targets. "Again!" the woman shouted as the archers prepared to fire another salvo.

The blond raised his hand up to alert the catapult operators, his brows shot up as he heard something approaching them. His eyes widened as he jumped out of the way, a boulder came crashing down on the wall, where he once stood. Three more soon followed it, one hitting the courtyard and the other hitting the wall.

"Don't tell me they have catapults!" he shouted in annoyance.

"That and a few mages!" one of the archers called out as the blond growled. He raised his hand in the air and lowered it signaling the catapults to proceed with the attack.

He then turned to face the approaching army, they would have to hold the outer wall for as long as they could, that meant dwindling down their numbers until the walls couldn't stand the attack anymore. He kneeled down as a stream of fire shot all around him forming a small tornado. The blond brought his hands together and chanted, his eyes then snapped open as the tornado vanished and fire burst in the courtyard behind him.

The fire started taking shape and in a matter of seconds the fire elemental, Inferno, stood in all his glory. The Royal Guard members looked at the large elemental in awe and fear, it was the first time they had seen one up close, they rarely showed themselves in the open – especially if it was raining.

"Inferno! I want you to stop any incoming attacks from the enemy catapults, this wall must hold for as long as possible!" he called out towards the elemental. Steam rose from it as the rain connected with its body.

"_**It shall be done…however; I will not be able to stay here for long."**_ It stated as the blond nodded, water was its weakness, while the rain wouldn't kill it off it would severely weaken the elemental.

As the second salvo from the enemies catapults appeared in view the elemental summoned two fire spears and flung them towards the boulders, shattering them. It then moved towards the third one catching it in its arms before throwing it back from where it came.

Naruto unsheathed his sword and spun it in his hand, he then brought it in front of him and channeled energy into the blade. He passed a finger over the blade as flames appeared around it, he moved his hand away and made a swinging motion towards the approaching army. A fireball shot from the sword that soon burst into multiple fireballs, all moving in different directions.

They hit the ground in front of the advancing army or hit the mercenaries as they were attacking. The blond's eyes then narrowed as he saw something, some of the attackers looked to be in just plain rags, carrying their weapons sluggishly – like they had never used them before. He narrowed his eyes as one of them passed by one of the fires created by the attack, the man had a collar from what it seemed around his neck. Slaves? Where they using slaves as cannon fodder? Had they been mowing down slaves all this time?

"Incoming!" one of the archers yelled as he moved out of the way. A large stream of water shot through the wall ripping it in half. The blond looked around the battlefield for the source; he could vaguely see the mage responsible for the attack.

A thunder then hit the wall making the Guardsmen jump out of the way, or throwing them away. The blond's eyes narrowed as another lighting bolt struck the wall mere inches from his location. "Down! Everyone on the ground!" he shouted as they all complied and started abandoning their posts.

The blond glared towards the oncoming army as he jumped down from the wall. Another thunder hit the wall, this time where he used to stand. A crack formed in the wall as water burst through it making a large opening.

"Fuck!" he shouted as he saw the opening in the wall. He turned towards the fire elemental and nodded. The elemental bowed before vanishing, it was too weakened to continue fighting.

"Move those catapults beyond the inner walls and keep firing them!" he shouted as the operators complied and started moving them away. "Rest of you form up! We will meet the enemy here and stop them in their tracks!" he shouted as Guardsmen moved towards the blond, some were wearing plain leather armor or chain-mails, others were wearing plate armor like the Knight-Commander.

"You all know the formations! Get to it!" he shouted as the Guardsmen with plate armor moved in front of those with chain-mail and the last ones were the ones wearing leather armor. Behind them, close to the inner walls stood the archers, ready to support the close range fighters.

They then waited for the enemy to approach. Attacks from the enemy's catapults kept hitting the outer wall making cracks in it. He could see the salvos of arrows flying over their heads, each time he saw the enemies arrow salvo's he created a dome of fire above them to protect him and the Guardsmen behind him.

Slowly, the rain stopped, by the time it fully stopped the first group of attackers could be seen entering through the fray. "My God…" he heard several Guardsmen gasp. "…those assholes…" another growled as the blond turned his head slightly towards them.

"What's happening?" he inquired as the Guardsmen tensed.

"Those collars…they're used on slaves and prisoners to make them do as the wielder demands…those people, their farmers from a nearby village." One of them stated as Naruto's eyes widened in horror. They had been killing cannon fodder up until now, worse of all, innocent people that were forced to fight against their will.

His eyes then narrowed as he saw another group entering the courtyard, these guys were definitely mercenaries. They wore different types of armors and had different types of weapons in their hands, they also looked like they knew how to handle the weapons in their hands.

"Alright…kill all bandits and mercenaries you can, render the farmers unconscious." He ordered as the men let out a battle-cry and waited for the blond to give the attack signal.

Naruto waited for them to come closer, he would have to draw the mages into the battle as well, but he was sure that after they saw Inferno they'd try to keep their distance. It didn't matter that much, as long as they took down the forces coming towards them the rest didn't matter.

Raising his sword in the air he watched as the mercenaries charged forward with their weapons ready to strike. He lowered his arm cutting the air with his sword and sending a large pillar of fire towards the mercenaries burning those that in made contact with. The Guardsmen let out another war-cry as they charged forward towards the approaching army with the blond leading them.

In a matter of seconds the two armies' collided, steel met steel – in some cases steel met the enemies flesh. Naruto's sword collided with the enemies head, killing the mercenary instantly; he kicked the dead body away and raised his sword parrying an axe. He grabbed the axe with his free hand and pulled the wielder towards him, he then thrust his sword into the man's chest and kicked him away.

He grinned as he ducked under another attack and pierced the enemy's heart with his sword, he grabbed the dead body and flung it towards two bandits, making them fall on the ground. A fireball then connected with them, their screams echoed on the battlefield as they were burned alive.

His eyes then moved to one of the peasants as he tried to stab him, he grabbed the man by the neck and head butted him, rendering the man unconscious. Turning around he ducked under a sword, he then jumped out of the way avoiding a large axe. The axe wielder was suddenly flung to the ground as one of the Guardsmen with plate armor slammed into him, he raised his sword up and lowered it on the man's head.

Naruto's eyes widened as he jumped towards the Guardsmen and blocked a sword meant to strike him in the back. As the man took his sword out of the mercenaries head, he turned around and cut another in half. "You have my thanks sir." He told the blond who grinned and cut down another mercenary.

The sound of battle resonated throughout the night as mercenaries and bandits were killed left and right and peasants were knocked unconscious by Naruto and the Guardsmen. The blond did his best to use his fire as much as possible, the mercenaries started blending with the peasants, he didn't need any more innocents on his conscious.

After hours of constant battle, a numerous losses on both sides, it seemed like the number of attackers was starting to dwindle. Raising his sword in the air the blond let out a battle-cry. "Forward!" the blond charged forward cutting through their ranks, soon followed by the rest of the Guardsmen. The inner gates doors were flung open as Knights charged out cutting through the enemy ranks.

Seeing as their numbers started falling the enemy tried to make a run for it. They ran through the openings in the outer wall as the blond and the Guardsmen soon followed after them.

"Open the gates!" one of the knights shouted as several Guardsmen rushed towards the top of the gatehouse and started working on the gate. The knights soon rushed out through the gates.

The blond grinned as he saw the enemy camp in the distance, it still had several enemies, but not enough to hold out. He also noticed all their cannon fodder was now gone, there was nothing holding him back now.

Flames erupted around the blond moving in different locations taking the forms of lions and tigers. The flames then charged forward towards the retreating army, taking them down one by one.

"One last intimidation…" the blond said to himself as massive amounts of fire burst all around him, a roar echoed in the valley as the flames took the shape of a massive dragon. The dragon moved towards the retreating form and opened its mouth, flames rained down on the retreating forces, burning them alive.

Those at the camp looked in fear at what was coming towards them, the mages shook in fear and took several steps back. The apparent leader of the attack turned towards them with anger in his eyes.

"What are you standing around for?" he shouted at them "Take that thing down!" he yelled as one of the mage turned around and started running for his life.

"Are you insane?" one shouted with fear in his voice "I knew that elemental was strange…they have Ignis Deus on their side! I'm not going to lose my life for money, screw this!" he shouted as he turned around and fled, soon followed by the rest of the mages.

Seeing the mages flee, several bandits and mercenaries turned around and started following the mages, running for their lives. No matter how much they would get paid, it was not worth dying while fighting against a mage that could summon a dragon and a demon.

"Stop running you cowards!" the leader shouted as he turned towards the approaching army. He grit his teeth as he tried to hold his ground, but as the dragon roared one more time and spewed fire on the battlefield he dropped his sword and turned tail and ran.

Seeing their enemy running away, the Guardsmen stopped their charge and started cheering. The blond grinned as he dropped on the ground panting. The dragon dispelled itself and the flames returned to the blond before dissipating in thin air. He didn't know how much he could keep the dragon up and running, he felt like he had drained himself completely.

"Finally…" he said in an exhausted tone as the Knights kept charging forward to clean up any stragglers.

**xXx**

Naruto sighed happily as he looked out the window of the train. He could see the castle in the distance, smoke was rising in the air. People around him were confused as to what was happening there, if the castle was alright. Naruto already knew the answer to that. The enemy had been crushed a day ago and the Knight-Commander sent troops to find the nobles responsible for the attacks.

With the blond's help they were able to locate them and imprison them. As soon as the rest of the forces would return they would be escorted to the capital and judged for their crimes. The Knight-Commander was adamant in giving the blond a reward as soon as he told the man that he was going to leave.

Trying to argue with the man was impossible; Klaus wouldn't let him leave until he accepted the reward. He had given the blond a tabard with the banner of Castle Tazhok as well as a decree through which it stated that should the blond ever require the assistance of the Royal Guard they would help him no matter what.

"This seat taken?" the blond smiled as he turned towards the newcomer.

"Nope…" he said as the man sat in front of the blond "…so….where have you been Mistgun?" he asked as the man moved his right leg over his left and looked out the window.

"Doing some business…I must apologize for not showing up sooner, though I heard you didn't require my help at all." His voice held pride making the blond grin at him.

"What can I say? Sometimes I amaze even myself." He joked as his comrade laughed lightly.

"Ready to head back?" he asked and turned to look at the blond. Said blond smiled as he looked back out the window and nodded.

"Yea…but only to say hello…" he stated "…the Knight-Commander asked for a favor…" he told Mist who nodded in understanding.

"Need help?" he asked as the blond seemed to think over the question. He smiled and shook his head however.

"No…I think I can handle it." He told him as his comrade nodded back. The rest of the trip was made in silence, not that blond minded. Mistgun didn't talk unless needed to or had something to say.

**xXx**

Naruto smiled as they walked through Magnolia, people looked at him and Mist strangely, those that recognized the blond immediately waved towards him with friendly smiles on their faces. The blond nodded towards those, they didn't know he was Uzumaki Naruto, they recognized _Ignis Deus_ by the clothing.

Mistgun wanted to take a different route, to avoid contact or being seen by people. Naruto however managed to convince his friend to walk with him through the town, their faces were covered anyway, there was no way they would see their face.

The blond was surprised and pleased that Magnolia didn't change that much over the years, it was mostly just as he remembered it, the stores were still there, the people were mostly still the same. As soon as he entered the town he felt right at home.

As they came to the guilds entrance the blond felt Mistgun release his spell. He chuckled at that, as they entered the guild he saw everyone sleeping – due to Mist's spell. The only one that wasn't asleep was the guild master; he hadn't changed at all from what Naruto saw.

As they walked through the guild the blond looked around and noticed many new faces, there were a few familiar faces. He immediately recognized Erza and Mira who were sleeping on the bar counter.

"Ah, welcome back Mist." Makarov said with a smile as said mage nodded in recognition. "And I see you brought an old friend of ours with you this time…" he said as he turned towards the blond who grinned under his hood.

"It's been a long time jii-san." Naruto chuckled as the guild master laughed heartily.

"Indeed it has, have a seat, tell me of your adventures." He told the blond as he opened a bottle of beer and handed it to the blond with a cup.

During this time Mistgun studied the job board and picked a job for himself, he looked at the guild master and the blond; he nodded at them saying his good-bye and left the guild. As he left the spell cast on everyone started lifting.

"Loud bunch…" the blond chuckled as everyone started complaining about Mist and his way of entering the guild.

"Mist is too shy for his own good…" Makarov said with a grin as the blond chuckled once again, he poured the contents of the bottle in the cup and took a large sip.

"You are right about that…and I thought I made him a bit more outgoing." He said with a chuckle as Makarov laughed.

The man's laughter brought everyone's attention towards him, only now they noticed the strange man sitting at the bar next to their guild master, chatting like they had known each other for years.

"Ah…I should probably get going…" the blond said as he placed the empty cup on the table.

"Where to?" Makarov inquired as he looked at the blond.

"A friend asked for a favor…couldn't say no." the blond replied with a smile "I should be back in a week or so." He told the old guild master as he turned around and started leaving. He raised his right hand up in a wave as everyone saw the symbol on his hand.

It was then that Erza recognized the sword strapped to his back and the ribbon attacked to the hilt of said sword. She jumped from her seat and ran after the blond. "Wait!" however, the blond had already left the guild. As she arrived outside she was shocked to see that the blond was nowhere in sight, like he had disappeared.

A small smile appeared on her lips despite all that. "I guess you're back…" she said to no one in particular as she walked back inside the guild


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 8**

For once the blond felt like he didn't want to do a job. Looking at the ruins of the tower at the top of the hill made the blond think twice about this little request. There was something completely wrong with that tower, the abundance of dark energy surrounding the tower was unbelievable. Now he knew why the area was constantly under lock-down by the Royal Guard.

Still, the knight-commander wanted to know why the men stationed at the tower hadn't sent the monthly report like they should have, so Naruto was stuck doing this small favor for the man. Slowly, the blond started walking up towards the tower.

It didn't take long for him to reach the tower, up close he was mighty impressed by it. Whoever built it knew how to construct something to last, despite the obvious decay that could be seen on the towers walls, it was still standing as imposing as ever. Fifteen meters tall, it served as a lookout point, it was mainly used by mages so the walls were infused by their magic even now.

Normal attacks wouldn't be enough in taking down the tower, only a mage – or more – would be able to scratch it. The blond gingerly touched the wall and immediately pulled away, he looked at his hand, it was burned.

Looking up from his hand he scanned the interior of the tower. The stairs leading to the top of the tower were destroyed, dust fell from the walls as the wind blew inside. His eyes then moved to his right, he could see a large door on the floor. He raised an eyebrow, when he was little he had read about the fact that certain towers had dungeons or crypts underneath them. They served either as a refuge point for allied troops or as prisons during wars.

He walked closer to the large doors, a skeleton stood next to the door. The blond glanced at the bones for a second before returning his gaze to the doors, a large chain was thrown on the ground in front of the doors, but the blond couldn't see the lock.

He scowled, clearly those stationed here weren't up in the tower since climbing it without stairs was practically impossible, so that left the dungeon or crypt – or whatever the tower had underneath it. Naruto shivered slightly as he grabbed the handle and pulled, the door opened with a loud creak.

The fire mage peered inside and lifted a finger, a small streak of fire shot inside illuminating the area. A cold breeze blew around him making the blond shiver involuntarily. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, carefully he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Lifting his palm up he summoned a larger flame and looked around.

Spider webs, shackles, bones….he already didn't like where this was going. He took a step forward, then another…slowly he started walking deeper into the crypt. The dark energy was incredibly powerful here, he wondered what the tower might hide and he wondered why no one bothered to take whatever was inside here and seal it somewhere safer.

He came to a halt as he felt his foot drop deeper into the floor. His eyes widened as saw something shine in the darkness. Before his eyes a large spiked trunk appeared. He jumped over it in the last second and turned around, the backside didn't have any spikes. He stopped it as it came back towards him.

"Great…booby traps…" he mumbled as he saw the ropes attached to the trunk.

The blond turned around and raised his hand up again, he scanned the area for any more nearby traps yet he found none. He knew that spotting a trap wouldn't be that easy, he would knew now that he had to be extremely careful here, last thing he would want would be to fall in a pit with spikes.

Turning around he continued walking through the corridor, stepping carefully and looking down at the floor with each step he took. He came to a halt as he saw a round metal plate on the ground. Crouching down, the blond looked at the plate and then looked around, he saw a large door just a few feet away from him.

He then looked back down at the plate and touched it with a finger, nothing happened. He then stood up and moved his right leg over it, carefully he stepped over the metal plate. Numerous spikes shot from the ground in front of him, blocking his way towards the door.

Taking his foot away from the plate made the spikes recede into the ground. He looked down at the metallic plate once more, making sure to remember how it looked like. Once satisfied he walked around it and continued his walk towards the door.

A thought passed through his mind as he thought about the trap, those spikes didn't look like they had aged a day, was the magic keeping them intact? Or had someone planted the trap recently?

As he reached the door the blond placed his free hand over it and pushed the door open. In front of him was a large room and a stone made catwalk, he stepped inside and peered down from the catwalk, he couldn't see what was down there but he didn't actually want to find out.

Taking a deep breath Naruto started walking forward, his free hand touching the stone pillars that sustained the catwalk. A breeze suddenly passed in front of him followed by a loud noise. He blinked as he looked around trying to figure out what went past him. Pain shot through his hand as he immediately lowered it and canceled the fireball.

His eyes widened as he looked at his hand, there was an arrow stuck in his hand. Gritting his teeth, the blond ripped the metal tip of the arrow and threw it on the ground, he then pulled the remainder out of his hand and bandaged the wound.

Carefully, he stood back up and summoned a pillar of fire. The pillar then shot to all corners of the room illuminating the room. He looked around trying to figure out where the trap was, then he looked down towards the bottom of the room and his eyes widened as he ducked. Several arrows flew over his head.

"You have got to be kidding me…" he whispered as he peered down, several skeletons with bows in their hands patrolled the bottom floor. A few of them were scanning the walkway, trying to spot the intruder.

This was new for the blond, he had never seen walking skeletons – only read about them in books. Maybe the magic had something to do with them? Or maybe someone had created them and was controlling them. He didn't know for sure and staying there to ponder on it was not a good idea.

Looking down the catwalk his eyes narrowed as he saw several pressure plates, traps and skeleton archers, this was definitely not his day. He looked up at the pillar of fire he called it back, the flames returned to him and started circling around his body, illuminating the area around him.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto stood up and started running down the catwalk. Arrows flew all around him as the skeletons tried to take him down. The firewall around him however melted the arrows before they could make contact with his body. He jumped over the pressure plates, he didn't need any more traps to activate.

He could see the door in the distance, he was getting close. His eyes widened as he felt his foot go deeper into the ground. A loud humming noise echoed around the room, acting on instinct, the blond jumped forward and landed on the ground, on his stomach. Numerous needles shot above him hitting the walls on the opposite end.

As the last needle flew over him the blond stood back up and continued running towards the door. Upon reaching it, he grabbed the handle and opened it, he then stepped inside the hallway and slammed the door shut behind him. He took a deep breath as he slumped down on the ground, this was getting stranger by the minute. At least now he understood why they never moved the artifacts from these places, they were already secured.

Shaking his head the blond dismissed the fire and stood back up, he could see several torches burning in the hallway, giving a little bit of light. Footsteps echoed in the hallway making the fire mage tense. He looked around carefully, then he pinpointed where the origin of the sound. Turning his head in the sounds direction his eyes widened at what he saw.

Not far from him a skeleton was walking up some stairs towards the hallway. It was clad in armor, it carried a massive broadsword behind it, several arrows were stuck in its chest plate. As the skeleton reached the hallway it looked around, as if scanning the area. It didn't spot the blond as it turned to the right and walked down a different hallway.

Naruto cursed under his breath, what sort of magic protected this place? Reviving the dead, even if it's just their bones was unheard of – or at least there were no mentions of such a thing in any history books. Dark magic wasn't excluded, but why would the Royal Guard leave such a powerful artifact here? Sure the traps were good enough to hold back your average treasure hunters, but a mage with a lot of experience would be able to pass right through them.

He grumbled as he started walking down the hallway, now that he thought about it, he didn't know where he needed to go or where he was supposed to go. He looked around, there were numerous pathways all around him, he didn't know which one to take. With a sigh he continued walking down the same path he had started.

It seemed like hours had passed until he reached the next large room, navigating through all the traps set up in this place and making sure he didn't get seen by the skeletons proved to be harder than he had thought. Sure he could have easily taken down the patrols, but what if the spell that had reanimated them could also be used to alert the others if one of them went down? He could risk getting swarmed by God knows how many skeletons.

The room he had entered was larger than the previous one, there were four pillars in the middle of the room, on top of said pillars stood a large crystal – four in total, one on top of each pillar. They all had a light blue glow, said glow was illuminating the room. Even though they were barely illuminating the room, Naruto realized that he could see everything around him clearly.

There were numerous weapons discarded on the floor, the vast majority were broken and rusty. Pieces of pots and broken wood lay all over the room, apart from that however, the place was bare of anything else. Most likely it had been stripped clean of anything valuable in the past.

Something caught his eye however, there was a body at the end of the room, near a large metal door. Carefully, the blond walked through the room, his eyes constantly scanning the area around him making sure that there were no traps around or no patrols.

As he got closer to the body the blond recognized the armor, it belonged to the Royal Guard, which meant that he had found the first missing Guardsman. He moved to check for a pulse, the man's hand shot up grabbing the blond's and making his yell in surprise.

"Quiet…" the man rasped out "…they will hear you…" he said between pants.

"What happened here?" he asked as soon as his heart stopped racing from the scare. The man was covered in blood, his weapon was laying next to him, broken in half.

"We were attacked…" he replied with a weak voice as he pointed towards the large door. "…he went through there…"

"Who attacked you? What's he after?" the mage asked as the man's grip on his hand started dying down.

"…stop…him…" he rasped out as he collapsed on the ground. The blond checked the man and shook his head, he was dead. A lot of question ran through his head, he wondered who attacked the guards and what the attacker was looking for.

Standing back up, he looked towards the metal door and walked over to it. The door was open, he peered inside. He could see a long hallway illuminated by the same crystals that were illuminating the room he was in. He stepped inside and continued his mission.

After walking for a few minutes he entered in another chamber, his eyes narrowed as he unsheathed his sword. In front of him stood a large number of skeletons, they were all guarding a large metal door. They took a step forward and then charged towards him.

He was surprised by their speed, he jumped out of the way as a large sword slammed in the ground where he once stood. The skeleton pulled it out of the ground with ease and continued its attack. He ducked under its next attack and then with one swift motion he cut the skeleton in half, making its bones fall on the ground in a pile.

Fire burst in front of him as numerous arrows hit the blond's defense. He turned to face the archers, his fire shot forward and slammed in them, destroying them. Naruto then turned to face the close range fighters; he raised his sword and blocked a skeletons attack. He slammed in it making it fall on its back, its skull was shattered as the blond stepped on it.

He spun around and raised his sword blocking another attack, fire appeared around the swords blade as the jumped backwards and then slashed the air in front of him. A wall of fire burst from the blade burning down its foes. His eyes widened however as the skeletons stood up from the attack, he watched as the archers he had crushed moments ago were now reconstructing themselves.

The blond cursed as he moved to the side and avoided a large battle axe. As the axe moved towards him once more he ducked under it and grabbed it, he then pulled it towards him making the skeleton holding the axe fall on its face. He plunged his sword in the skeletons skull and rolled out of the way as a hail of arrows hit the ground where he once stood.

Naruto ran to a nearby pillar and hid behind it, he peered around it and saw the skeletons moving towards his location, his eyes widened as he saw skeletal arms shoot from the ground. More and more were being summoned; his eyes moved towards the large door they were defending, if he stood here to fight he would only have to face endless waves.

He moved his head out of the way as an arrow wheezed past him. Taking a deep breath the blond concentrated on his sword. Fire burst around the blade as Naruto stood back up and slammed the sword in the ground. A massive pillar of fire burst from his feet and shot out in a circle, burning down anything that it came in contact with.

Smirking, the blond stood back up and ran towards the door, he could hear the skeletons reconstructing behind him and more being summoned. As he reached the door the blond sheathed his sword and grabbed the handles. He started pulling with all his might yet the doors didn't seem to budge at all.

His eyes narrowed as he moved to the side, a large axe embalmed itself in the door. He grabbed the skeleton and slammed its head on the door until the skull cracked. He then threw the skeleton away and continued pulling the door. A loud creaking sound echoed in the chamber as the blond felt the doors moving.

With a victorious grin he moved inside the next room and turned around. He grabbed the handles and pulled the doors closing them behind him, he could hear arrows hit the door from the other side.

"Whose there?" a voice resonated in the chamber.

Naruto spun around; the room was smaller than the previous one. In the middle of the room was a large podium, to the side of the podium stood eight pillars with one crystal each, in the far end of the podium stood a large statue holding a massive blade upside down in its right hand and a small chest in its left hand. A man stood in front of the statue, looking towards the blond with curiosity.

He was wearing a black robe with the design of a shark on its back, a gauntlet in each hand and a trident on his back. He had messy black hair and half of his face was burned.

"Who are you?" the man demanded pointing towards the blond whose eyes narrowed.

"I could ask you the same thing…" he stated taking a step forward. "…what are you doing here?"

"That is none of your concern, now leave before I decide to wipe you from the face of the planet." He said with a growl as he turned around and moved towards the statue.

"I think not…" the blond's voice echoed in the room making the man stop in his tracks. "…step away from the artifacts…" he growled as the man turned his head towards the blond.

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the symbol on the man's neck. "Surprised?" the man inquired with a grin "I feel generous today, so why don't you leave and forget you ever saw anything?"

"Fat chance…" he growled in reply as unsheathed his sword, the blade catching fire and making the man's eyes narrow. "…you'd think I'd let a mage from Grimoire Heart leave this place with God knows what relic?"

"I see…" the dark mage said slowly as he turned to face the blond. "So you are _Ignis Deus_…" he muttered to himself as the ground began to shake.

Naruto fell on one knee trying to keep his balance, he looked towards his target with narrowed eyes, waiting to see what attack he would unleash. Water burst from under the blond's feet throwing him towards the ceiling, he gasped in surprised as he was slammed with the ceiling.

As the geyser stopped spewing water the blond crashed on the ground gasping in pain. He rolled several feet and coughed a few times before getting back on his feet. He staggered on his feet, the world spun around him, he could hear the mage laugh at him.

The ground shook one more time, before the blond could react a large pillar of water slammed into him sending him in the nearby wall. The wall cracked from the impact, he gasped in pain before falling on the ground face first.

"Now stay there like a nice little mage and let me finish…" the man said with a grin as he turned towards the statue. He walked in front of it and raised his hand towards its face, a beam of light shot from the statues eyes making contact with the mage's eyes.

A purple pillar entangled the man and the statue as the blond staggered back on his feet. He watched with worry as the crystals started shattering and the room began shaking. Chunks of rocks fell from the ceiling, Naruto rolled out of the way barely dodging a piece of the ceiling. He looked up towards the pillar of light, it slowly died down revealing the dark mage holding the statues open chest in his hands.

The man's laughter echoed all around him, the blond grit his teeth; he couldn't let the mage take whatever was inside the chest. "Finally…the way to Zeref's secrets!" the mage yelled making the blond's eyes widen. Any mage wroth his salt knew the name Zeref, and the horrible things the dark mage did.

His resolve to stop the dark mage had grown stronger upon hearing that, he jumped back on his feet and threw a fireball towards the dark mage, the man turned towards the incoming attack and jumped out of the way. The fireball crashed in the statue shattering it, the blade falling on the ground.

A wall of fire burst in front of the blond as the dark mage responded to the blond's attack, a stream of water connected with the wall, steam started filling the room. Naruto jumped to the side and grabbed his sword, his defense had failed against the pillar of water.

He dashed towards his opponent with his sword poised to strike, water burst from the ground, the blond mage dodged the attacks skillfully. Mere inches away from his target a wall of water burst from the ground making the blond stop in his tracks, he began backtracking as tendrils shot from the wall towards him. He dodged the tendrils and cut those he couldn't dodge with his sword.

Having enough he summoned another wall of fire and stood behind it as the tendrils hit his defense, a spear made out of fire appeared in the blond's left hand, he moved his arm back and then threw it towards the dark mages' general direction. The spear burst from the wall of fire cutting down the water tendrils that got in its way, it then struck the water wall, piercing through it.

The mage's attacks ceased as the wall dispersed itself in a pool of water, Naruto dismissed his fire and peered through the steam trying to figure out if his attack hit the enemy – his guard was never down however, time and time again had proved to never let your guard down until you were certain that your enemy was dead.

His eyes narrowed as he moved his body to the side, several water spikes moved past the blond connecting with the wall. He looked towards the mage's location, said mage burst form the steam with his trident in his hands. Naruto raised his sword and stopped the trident mere inches from his face, he growled as he pushed the mage back.

He swung the blade towards the dark mage, a wall of fire shot towards him. The mage raised his trident up and then slammed it in the ground, water burst from all around him protecting him from the incoming attack. The fiery wall connected with the mage's defense dispelling itself.

The man grinned as he looked up towards the blond and swung his trident towards him, the water shot towards its target hitting the blond that tried to deflect the attack with his sword; he was pushed back several feet.

The ground began to shake as spike formed out of water shot from the puddles at the blond's feet. Naruto jumped out of the way avoiding the spikes and landing on the podium, he turned towards his enemy and summoned his fire, the fire then scattered in all directions and took the form of human archers.

They raised their fiery bows and pointed them towards their master's enemy; the man looked around at all the targets and growled. Using his trident he began shooting water bullets towards the archers taking down a quarter of them before they even fired the fist salvo.

The mage tried to defend himself from the arrows by summoning a dome of water, he was amazed when the arrows pierced through his defense, one of them nearly stabbing him in the head. He jumped out of the dome as more arrows crashed inside of it, he ran behind one of the pillars and took down the archer that could fire towards him.

He summoned more pillars of water and launched them towards the blond's location, arrows shot from the remaining archers piercing the pillar of water. They were unable to dispel it however, Naruto raised his sword – the blade catching fire as he gazed towards the incoming attack. The blond jumped forward and sliced the attack in half, the man's attack hit two stone pillars taking them down.

Naruto's eyes widened as he turned towards the pillars, he jumped out of the way avoiding one of them yet the second crashed on top of him. Laughter echoed in the room as the fire archers started vanishing, the dark mage moved out of his hiding spot and walked in the middle of the room, he looked towards the rubble and the dust lifting in the air and grinned.

His eyes widened however as he saw something moving out of the dust filled platform, before he could even react the blond's sword embedded itself in the dark mage's chest. With wide eyes he looked down at the sword and dropped his weapon on the ground. Moments later footsteps echoed in the room, he looked up and saw the blond walking down the stairs while holding his left arm.

The blond walked up to the dark mage and grabbed him by the throat, he saw the man trying to cast a spell, with narrowed eyes the blond proceeded to slam his enemy on the floor. The mage grunted in pain as his face connected with the floor. Naruto grabbed him by the collar and flung the mage in a nearby pillar, the pillar came crashing down on top of the mage.

He slowly walked towards the rubble and began scavenging for the dark mage, he was amazed when he found the man still breathing. The fire mage grabbed the hilt of his sword and pulled it out of the man's chest, he yelled in pain as the blade was pulled out of his body.

The mage opened his eyes and grinned at the blond, said blond narrowed his eyes and lowered his blade in the mage's head taking his life.

"Fucking bastard…" he grumbled as he clutched his injured arm, his eyes then landed on the small chest next to the dark mage's body.

The blond kneeled besides the body and carefully picked up the chest, he opened it and looked inside. His eyebrows rose as he took a piece of paper from inside the chest, he unrolled it and looked over it carefully. It was a map of Fiore and a little bit of Bosco, the rest of the map seemed to have been ripped off.

He wondered what the dark mage wanted with the map, what was the connection between this map and Zeref. The map had several designs on it, it was like the one that made the map tried to build the path towards something, to show the route towards something.

He grumbled under his breath as he walked towards the door, it was time to pay a visit to the council.

**xXx**

"_This isn't good…"_ the blond thought as he examined the piece of map once again, he was on a train bound for Magnolia, he didn't really know how to get in contact with the council and believed that if he asked the guild master he would tell him.

From the moment he had stepped onto the train he had tried to deduce what the map tried to portray or what it was trying to point to. There were two things that the blond had managed to decipher, one was the location of _"Lullaby"_ and the other was the location of _"Endless Dream"_.

There were arrows pointing from the tower he had been to towards the location of each dark artifact. The fact that the map portrayed the location of each artifact was bad enough, but the strange words written under the two artifacts locations scared him more than ever.

'_**And with a song their souls shall come, the endless dream will restore the power of …'**_

The rest of the wording was ripped off, probably the rest of it could be found on the other piece of the map. He didn't know much about the artifact called _"Endless Dream"_, but looking over the map the blond could deduce that it was located in an island, near the coast of Kaellum.

He scratched his chin, maybe it would be good to head towards Kaellum and find the artifact before anyone else finds it, especially a dark mage. But then again, if there were dark mages there, trying to get the artifact, he wouldn't be able to stop them by himself. The temperature at that altitude would put a dent into his magic and weaken him at the same time, for this task he was sure he would need help.

The closest artifact was _"Lullaby"_, the blond had decided to head towards its location after talking with Makarov and find it, even take it from there as a precaution.

**xXx**

The large doors of Fairy Tail's guild opened, all activity ceased as everyone looked towards the strange man standing in the door. Some recognized him as the man that had talked with Makarov about a week ago, others looked at him strangely and carefully.

Naruto looked around the place trying to spot Makarov, yet he could not see him anywhere. His eyes rested on a large decorated tooth in the middle on the guild, he smiled under his hood as he recognized Erza who was standing next to the tooth.

As he started walking towards the bar he could hear people whisper around him, asking who he was or what he was doing here, he grinned slightly, he liked the aura of mystery that he had for the moment.

A hand appeared in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. The blond looked towards the red haired mage as she glared at him. Everyone stood still, waiting to see what would happen next.

Suddenly the girl smiled as she walked forward and embraced the stranger making everyone pull back in shock. The stranger then moved his arms around her and embraced her back shocking them even more.

"What…what's going on here?" Natsu's voice echoed through the silence as Gray looked incredulously at the sight.

"Is this…not normal?" a blond haired girl standing at the bar asked Mirajane, the white haired mage shook her head, amazed at the sight.

"Erza is not that…warm with people…" she stated as she tried to figure out what she was missing out on.

The red head then pulled away from the newcomer and punched him in the chest, he bent down and grabbed his chest as he started laughing.

"Seriously…you could have said 'hello'." Erza stated as the man stood back up and shook his head.

"I had to take care of urgent business, but don't worry, it won't happen again." He told her as he walked past the red head and towards the bar. "Hey Mira-chan! Where is Makarov?" he asked as he pulled his hood down revealing himself.

The girl gasped as a smile appeared on her face and tears in her eyes. "Naruto!" she shouted as she jumped over the counter and embraced the blond, the two of them falling on the ground with the blond laughing.

"Naruto?" a random voice shouted in the crowd. "He's back?" another one shouted as Natsu jumped in the air cheering, everyone was then cheering, some had heard about Naruto – the fire mage – others were there when he first arrived and till the moment he left.

Only one person looked at the scene curiously, the new member, Lucy Heartfilia didn't know what was going on or who the blond was. She watched with a smile though as everyone jumped to ask the blond numerous questions and to greet him, she laughed as the blond tried to pry Mirajane from him. The white haired girl kept stating that if she let go he would leave again.

When he did manage to free himself Mira went on to explain to Lucy who Naruto was. The girl was shocked when he learned who he was. He was a legend, a living legend going by numerous nicknames – though the most known one and most used was _Ignis Deus_. There was very little information on him, Fairy Tail never told the papers who he was or what he was doing during his travels.

"Ah…you must be the newest member…" she heard the blond speak, she looked up at him as she was standing on the seat next to her. Lucy smiled and nodded towards them as the blond welcomed her to the guild.

It was then that she noticed the eye-patch. "Naruto-san?" she asked as the blond smiled.

"Just Naruto please…" he said with a chuckle as Mirajane brought him a drink.

"Ah sure…" she replied before going back to her question "…I couldn't help but notice the eye-patch…" she stated as the blond stopped drinking and behind him Erza looked away.

"Hey…she's right…" Natsu stated as he moved in front of Naruto "…what's the deal with the eye-patch? And those scars?" he asked pointing towards the blond. A hand then grabbed him by the collar and flung him away, Erza shook her head as she lowered her hand.

Mirajane looked at the blond as he lowered the cup, he looked towards her and then lowered his head knowing she would ask as well. "Sorry…maybe some other time." He told them as he raised his head and smiled.

Mirajane smiled back as the rest of the guild seemed to accept it. "Oh yea…where is Makarov?" Naruto asked as he looked around.

"Master is attending the annual meeting." Was the reply he got, he frowned at that as he unconsciously moved his hand towards his pocket where the piece of the map was.

"Is it in the same place?" he asked as the girl nodded and he stood up.

"You're leaving?" Gray asked as the blond nodded and moved his cowl over his head.

"I need to talk with Makarov, its urgent." He said as he started walking away, he stopped after walking a few feet and turned towards the bar again. He walked back towards it and pulled a piece of paper of his hand pocket and handed it to Mirajane.

The girl looked at it, the paper had an address written on it. The blond leaned forward and whispered to her. "Could you and Erza check that place for me?" he asked with a smile "And whatever you do, don't tell Natsu or Gray about the location." He said as the girl nodded with a smile.

The blond grinned and pulled back, he looked towards Erza and smiled at her before turning around and walking towards the door. "By the way Erza, Mira…you two are more beautiful then I remember." He said as he walked out the door with a large grin. If they were still the old Erza and Mira they would start fighting by now, or so he believed. If he had had looked back he would have seen a different scene.

* * *

**End Note:** And now we move into the Fairy Tail plot. I feel obliged to state that Naruto won't partake in every battle that Natsu had in the manga/anime/etc... I've read all the crossover stories here and I've seen this done over and over with minor (medium) changes...I wish to stray away, like always, from what has been used but still stay in that familiar territory.

So while there will be certain battles he won't partake in, they will happen, there will be battles he will be part of as well but his role in those battles will vary from simple support to fighter. Hopefully the side-plots I created will also entertain you guys and I hope I haven't and will not lose my touch any time soon.

About the ending of this story, the pairing is still the same - I'm sure you know what I meant in those last lines and not ask for Mira (I can't do it, believe me, if I could I would have done it - but this doesn't mean I can just make it so that she never really existed, I need to slowly make her crush/love vanish...yes I know I sounded like a bastard)

Next chapter will come when I got something more cooked up in my story stash


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 9**

"**What is it that you wish mortal?"** a deep voice resonated throughout the landscape.

Naruto looked down from the massive chunk of floating rock he was standing on and gulped. Underneath his feet there was nothing, there was a black abyss, he could see other floating rocks as well but he felt that if he went down there he would be swallowed by the darkness.

He looked up towards a massive rock, on it stood the Kyuubi, or at least he believed it was the fox. There was a throne of sorts on the rock, a figure sitting in on the throne. Fire moved around the figure constantly, shaping its form. Nine fiery tails moved around the throne from the figures back – or so the blond believed.

The figure's face shimmered. **"Speak! I do not have all day!"** it commanded as the blond narrowed his eyes.

"First of all, who are you?" he asked pointing towards the figure "Where is Kyuubi? What's this place?" he continued asking, he knew how his mindscape looked like, it had never changed since his first encounter with Kyuubi.

The figure shimmered, it looked like it had moved on the throne. **"He might be here…or he may not…"** it replied as Naruto frowned, that was not the answer he was looking for.

"Then who are you? Are you Kyuubi?" he asked, he didn't have time to play games with the fox.

"**I may…or may not…"** it replied once more making the blond twitch, he pointed his finger towards the figure and growled.

"Stop answering like that, where the fuck are we?" he asked.

The figure did not reply at first, then its face shimmered and a grin appeared. **"This place…is my domain, you called out to me; remember?" **it asked as Naruto blinked owlishly, he didn't call out for anyone, not even Kyuubi.

He was on a train heading towards the location the guild masters annual meeting usually took place when he suddenly woke up here. **"You've always called on me…"** it continued as Naruto's eyes widened, did that mean that he was talking with his own power? With the flames he constantly summoned?

His eyes then narrowed, there was no way his power had a mind of its own. "Stop playing games Kyuubi!" he shouted at the figure that vanished from the throne. Fire moved around the rocks floating in the air as its voice echoed throughout the landscape.

"**You came with a purpose…speak your mind mortal…or leave this place."** The voice commanded as the blond started thinking, did he really come to this place seeking an answer? His eyes widened as he looked towards the sky.

"The map!" he yelled as laughter echoed around him.

"**Yes…you wanted to know of the map…I…can help you."** The voice said as the fire died down, the figure appeared in front of the blond taking the shape of a man. His entire face was covered by a mask and a blindfold covering his eyes. He was wearing black plate armor, something similar to those of paladins. This made the blond raise an eyebrow.

"You…you're definitely not the fox…" he muttered as the figure laughed, it then looked towards the blond and extended his arm.

"**You want to know the meaning of the map, you want to know what it says…"** the man stated as Naruto kept quiet, he listened to the man and examined the hand, what was he expecting? **"I…can offer you the answer…for a price…"** the blond's eyes moved to the man's face, wondering what the price was.

"_**Don't listen to him!"**_ another voice shouted as the hand dropped next to the man's body, he took a step back as fire spewed in front of him forming a shield in front of Naruto. The fire then started morphing as a pair of eyes appeared within the fire.

"Kyuubi?" now the blond was confused, before him stood the fox, growling towards the man who seemed tense. The man took another step backwards before turning around and looking towards the blond.

"**The price for knowledge…is a soul…"** he stated as Naruto's eyes widened **"…for each soul you get an answer, the powerful the soul, the more answers you get."** He stated as he jumped down from the platform.

Kyuubi continued to growl even after the man had vanished, it then smelled the air and turned towards the blond. _**"Tread carefully with the Dark One…he is not bound by demon rules like I am, his words, everything he sprouts is a lie."**_

"Wait…what's going on here?" Naruto asked moving back. "What trick are you trying to play now fox?" he demanded as the demon growled, its tails moving dangerously behind it.

"_**That was no trick human!"**_ it roared, the rock shaking underneath their feet _**"That…was one of the artifacts you carry…"**_ the fox stated calming down _**"…I made a pact and I will respect that pact, however...that thing…has no honor whatsoever…do not trust a word it says."**_ It said as it started vanishing, the world around them crumbling and rays of light shining through the cracks appearing in the landscape.

"_**I warn you…stop your search else you bring destruction to both of us…"**_ were Kyuubi's last words as the world completely vanished around Naruto.

**xXx**

Naruto looked at the sealed scepter in his hands, it was sealed and yet he had this feeling it was related to the meeting he had a few hours ago. If he were to keep it on him for too long it would prove dangerous, yet, he didn't know what to do with it. He could hide it somewhere but the question was where would he hide it? He grumbled as he hid the scepter in his coat and looked out the window, he needed a place where the Dark Mages wouldn't look or even think of looking.

No matter how much he pondered on this, he didn't know what to do. Then he remembered Kyuubi's words, they didn't talk much and if they did it was usually a one sided talk with the fox telling the blond what he had done wrong in the battles and how he could improve to increase their survivability chances. Usually the fox didn't interfere much and liked to keep to itself, this time however, it was different.

The tone in its voice made the blond realize how bad the situation was and how much worse it could get. From what he knew most of the artifacts that Zeref had created had a mind of their own or housed a demon. "Lullaby" was one such example, it housed a demon that devoured souls, unlike the scepter – which the blond had yet to find out what its called – it didn't give the user any power boost or anything like that.

For Kyuubi to say that the one housed within the scepter was fouler that itself brought more questions to the blond and at the same time clarified something. Zeref really did create life out of nothing, yet that life wasn't bound by any rules. Kyuubi was bound to the demon laws, in its own words, the fox had a code of honor that it followed.

But still, the being within the scepter had an answer to the blond's questions, it knew about Zeref's plans and more importantly, it knew about the map. Thinking about it, now he really thought like he was trying to make a deal with the devil himself. Back when he struck the deal with Kyuubi for his eye, he felt like he was doing a deal with the devil, thinking about that now, it seemed like that was nothing compared with what he was offered now.

Bringing up the map he looked at it and scowled, was it worth it? Was it worth trying to make a deal with a being that had no honor? If he really went with what Kyuubi said he would only fall into a trap. He shook his head, maybe this time it was better to go with the word of the fox, maybe it was better to listen to the demon sealed within him.

The train suddenly came to a screeching halt, Naruto looked out the window once more and saw the sign: _'Oshibana Station'._ He stood up and walked out on the platform, from the town Oshibana he had planned to take a ride to Clover Town where the annual meeting took place. The town had no train station and the only way to reach it was by foot or by carriage – or magical transportation.

The blond pocketed the map and started walking away from the station, as he reached the exit he locked eyes with a black haired man that reminded the blond of someone. He immediately looked away and dismissed the thought. The man however stopped walking and looked at the blond's retreating figure, sweating slightly.

"_Don't tell me __he's__ here!"_ he yelled in his mind _"I need to warn the boss…"_ he thought as he turned around and ran in the station, the blond however was obvious to this as he looked around the square for a transport of sorts. His eyes landed on one of the magical vehicles. He walked up to the man sitting in the vehicle.

"Excuse me…" the blond started as the man looked up from the newspaper. "…I need to get to Clover Town." He said as the man nodded and closed the newspaper, he motioned for the blond to get in.

Moments later the vehicle left with its destination being Clover town, two people watched as the vehicle left the town, one of them grinning like a madman.

"Nothing to worry about it seems…" he stated as he turned around and started walking away. "…we can begin with our plan."

**xXx**

Naruto looked at the building in front of him, this was where the meeting took place, he took a deep breath. Apart from Makarov he had never met any other guild master and he knew how strong each one of them were, he was just a child in comparison with them, even Makarov would be able to wipe the floor with him if he desired to do so.

Shaking slightly, the blond walked forward and opened the door, the moment he stepped in he thought he was at some sort of party. He expected the guild masters to be at a table discussing who knows what, yet they seemed to be having a party of sorts. There were tables everywhere, neatly arranged with food and drinks already placed. People were chatting amongst themselves and laughing.

He sighed; sometimes he was amazed by the simplest things. "Oh? Who is this?" a voice called out as a tall man walked towards the blond. "And who might you be?" he inquired as the blond bowed slightly.

"I'm _Ignis Deus_, I'm here to see master Makarov of Fairy Tail." The blond stated as the man laughed softly.

"You don't need to be so formal, come, Makarov is just getting over his shock." He said motioning for the blond to follow.

"Shock?" he asked curiously as the man laughed once more and shook his head. Yet he didn't reply to the blond's question. As they walked through the crowd Naruto noticed people looking at him, smiling towards him and nodding in his direction. They knew who he was and it seemed like they respected him, it brought a small smile to the blond.

"Makarov! You have a visitor!" the blond's guide called out drawing him back to the task at hand. Naruto looked in front of him and saw Makarov sitting on a chair and drinking a cup of water, he seemed deathly pale.

"Umm…jii-san?" he asked "Something wrong?" he inquired as the man looked up at the blond and his color started to return to his face, he visibly relaxed a little bit.

"Wrong? I just heard that Erza, Natsu and Gray formed a team!" he shouted as the blond scratched his cheek not understanding what the problem was, sure he had heard that Natsu was a bit clumsy during missions and that Gray usually walked naked through towns, but Erza was with them…so that would mean she would keep them in check.

"I still don't see what's wrong…" he said as the man shook his head, Bob – of Blue Pegasus – laughed as he tried to calm his fellow guild master.

"Natsu and Gray are bad enough boy!" Makarov stated "Add Erza in that and its horrible, even she has her moments, just think of the damage they could do to a town, I'd have the council on my nerve for weeks!" he yelled out flailing his arms around as the blond laughed a little.

"I see what you mean…" he stated as Makarov jumped down from the chair and moved past the blond.

"Come on, we got to find them before it's too late!" he called out only to be stopped by Naruto.

"Master…there is the matter of why I came here before that…" that stopped the old man in his tracks, only now did he realize that Naruto must have come to this place for a reason. "I wish to meet the council, how do I get to Era?" he asked as everyone in the room stiffened.

Naruto looked around puzzled, did he ask something wrong? For the rest of the guild masters the request was extremely strange, no one had ever wanted to seek out the council for an audience, especially not one from Fairy Tail seeing as the council didn't like said guild very much. And yet the blond before them wished an audience with the council, it was like he was trying to walk into a lions den.

"Boy…" Makarov started seriously "…why do you wish a meeting with the council?" he wasn't dumb, there had to be a reason why Naruto wanted to meet them, he had read in the newspapers how he avoided every messenger the council had sent for him, how he tried to stay out of their reach.

"Its regarding an artifact I found in a tower here in Fiore." At the mention of a tower everyone in the room tensed, though it went unnoticed by the blond as he continued with his explanation. "The one north-west of Magnolia, just a hundred kilometers from Jura Town."

No one moved, everything was silent in the room. They knew of the tower, that blasted tower that had been under lock-down for many years with numerous Royal Guardsmen guarding the place. No one really knew what was in there and no one was allowed to venture inside, those that had even a bit of knowledge of what was inside the tower had their memories erased about it, it was that dangerous.

"Boy…that tower…" another guild master started as Naruto looked around.

"That tower…belonged to Zeref's most loyal mages…" Makarov stated making the blond's eyes widen at that "…no one is allowed in there…"

"How did you get inside? Why were you inside as a matter of fact?" another guild master shouted as the blond straightened himself.

"I was sent there by the Royal Guard on a favor." He told them making everyone's eyes widen at that. "If you remember jii-san, when I returned a week ago I told you I had a favor to do." He stated looking towards the guild master. "Knight Commander Klaus of Tazhok asked me to check on the guards as he had not received word from them in quite some time. By the time I reached the place the guards were already dead."

People started whispering among themselves at that, the idea that someone had killed the guards and infiltrated the tower. The term 'dark guilds' resonated throughout the whispering, it seemed to the blond that the guild masters were very wary of these guilds and even placed the blame on them in such matters.

"Who killed them?" the old man asked.

Naruto looked towards him and immediately replied. "A mage of Grimoire Heart." Everyone tensed at his reply, even Makarov took a step back in shock from what he heard. "He was after an artifact that I wish to present to the council."

"Wait…you mean to tell me you took an artifact from the tower? And it's on you right now?" Makarov shouted, his face losing color once more and people around the blond took a step back, who knew what the blond was carrying on him, what kind of dark artifact he had on him. "Are you insane boy!" he shouted one more as he began pacing around trying to calm himself.

"Master Makarov…with all due respect, the dark mage has been annihilated…" Makarov looked at the blond with wide eyes, respect evident in his eyes. Everyone looked at the blond amazed, to have killed a dark mage from such a powerful guild was worthy of respect. "…the artifact he was trying to retrieve was a map." He stated as everyone blinked owlishly at that. Why would a dark mage be after a map of all things in that tower?

"A map?" someone questioned. "Why a map?"

Everyone nodded and agreed with the question as Naruto moved his hand in his pocket and brought out the piece of the map. He unrolled it and showed it to everyone, they looked at it curiously; some that could decipher it back away with horror written all over their face.

"From what I could decipher, this map shows the location of each Dark Artifact as well as a … riddle of sorts as to what they all might be able to do…that I am not sure of." Naruto stated, his voice becoming lower with each word. "That is why I need to see the council, this is a threat to all of us!" he called out as people started to agree with him. "If a dark mage got his hands on this, or has another piece of the map, we must act immediately!"

"The boy is right!" a guild master called out stepping forward. He looked at the blond with narrowed eyes. "Unfortunately, reaching Era will take time, your best solution is to head to Fiore's Branch and meet them there."

"They are here?" the blond asked not understanding, he always thought the council members were in Era.

"No boy…" Makarov replied "…they have special places like this in all countries so that they can get in contact with people faster."

"I will write a letter to the council requesting a meeting." The mage from before stated as he left, heading towards one of the nearby rooms.

"Naruto, come with me…" Makarov stated as he started walking away, the blond nodded and pocketed the map, he then proceeded to follow his guild master out of the building.

"First things first, we find those three…four if you count Lucy…and then we head to the guild." Makarov stated.

"What about the council?"

"We will wait for the message to reach them and for them to accept your request for a meeting." Makarov replied as the blond sighed in annoyance, he didn't have time to wait, maybe by now a dark mage was leaving another place with a deadly artifact in his hands.

"I know you don't like it boy…" Makarov continued "…but some things just don't work the way you want them, most of the council are a bunch of stuck ups, you'll see when you meet them and most likely grow to hate them." He said shaking his head as the blond shrugged.

As the two walked out of the place they came across a heavily bandaged man, Naruto raised an eyebrow as he laid eyes on him, it seemed like he had met him before, but he wasn't sure about that. He then eyed the strange object in his hands, some sort of flute, the strangest thing about it was the skull however.

"Er…would you like to listen to a song?" the strange man asked as Makarov raised an eyebrow "The hospital doesn't let me play." He continued as the guild master thought about it for a second.

Then he nodded at the request. "Very well, but make it quick and then return to the hospital and heal up." He stated as the man laughed slightly and thanked the old guild master.

He raised the flute and prepared to sign, it was then that the blond realized what the flute was. He tensed as he prepared to attack only to have something hit his right foot. Looking down, he saw Makarov's cane on his leg and the guild master looking towards him with a critical eye. The man shook his head slightly making the blond's eyes widen, did he already know?

With a soft sigh the blond complied and relaxed a bit, he waited to see what Makarov's plan was. He watched as the man struggled to play the flute, it seemed like he was having a debate inside his mind, if he should go on with whatever plan he had or not. The blond relaxed as he saw the man crumbled, there was no more danger.

Makarov shook his head as he began talking, telling the injured man about friendship and strength, the fact that he didn't need the flute for anything. The man looked scared throughout the old man's talk as he dropped the flute on the ground and collapsed on his knees, admitting his defeat.

The blond inwardly laughed at that, never did he believe that a few words would make the enemy crumble on his knees. "Master!" the blond turned to the direction of the sound and smiled as he saw Team Erza. Makarov however had a different reaction to everything.

"Why are you three here?" he shouted as the color drained from his face for the third time in one day.

"You're amazing! You're words touched me deeply!" Erza called out as she grabbed the old man in a hug, his head slamming in her armor. She let go and looked up at the blond smiling with a small blush on her cheeks – remembering what he had said before leaving the guild yesterday. "Naruto…why are you here?"

"Why wouldn't I?" he asked laughing at her question, the girl giggled at his reply and shook her head. She looked towards him with a soft smile.

The blond's laughter suddenly died down as he tensed. _**"You mages have no guts!"**_ a deep voice called out as smoke began rising from the flute, the blond's eyes widened as he bit his lower lip.

"_Shit…I didn't know the beings housed inside the artifacts could come out…"_ the smoke began taking shape until a massive demon appeared in front of them.

"**Let me consume your pitiful souls!" **it called out as fire appeared around the blond. His eyes narrowed as he assumed a defensive position.

"Stand down _Lullaby_." Naruto ordered making everyone look at him like he was insane, the demon turned towards him and grinned, it started laughing at the blond and the order it was given.

"**You order me around pitiful mage?"** it inquired. **"You'll be my first meal then!"** the demon shouted as it opened its mouth, the song beginning to echo around them. While the majority brought their hands up to their ears to block the song, Team Erza charged forward.

Before they could get close however a massive wall of fire burst in front of them making them stop, the fire surrounded the demon which stopped its attack and looked around itself. **"It can't be…you can't be the one they talked about…"** it muttered as it looked towards the blond's general direction.

Fire burst around the blond taking the shape of spears, he raised his hand and pointed towards the fire wall. The spears turned towards the wall and shot forward, an ear piercing howl echoed from the wall as numerous projectiles moved towards the blond's location.

He jumped to the side avoiding the attack and moved his open hand towards the fire wall. He closed his hand in a fist making the fire move towards the demon, constricting it. Another howl echoed as the demon was consumed by the flames. Before everyone's eyes the demon began to evaporate until there was nothing left, the flames slowly died down until only the scorched ground could be seen.

"Weak…I've fought stronger…" Naruto muttered to himself, the ones that did hear him looked towards him with wide eyes; even Erza was impressed with how fast he dealt with the demon.

"I will take this…" one of the guild masters stated as he picked up the flute. "…the council will want it most likely." He said as everyone agreed.

"Oy Naruto!" the blond turned towards the dragonslayer "That wasn't right! You stole our fight!" he called out glaring towards the blond who laughed at him

"Oh come one, I hadn't had a fight for three days!" the blond replied as Natsu pointed a finger towards him.

"Then fight me!" he challenged as the blond blinked before bursting in laughter. "Hey! What's so funny?"

"Maybe another time, I've got work to do." The blond replied as he turned towards the guild master. "We should head back now." He stated as Makarov sighed and nodded, glad that the blond had taken care of the demon and not Team Erza, he shivered fearing what they might have done.

"Hey! Wait!" Natsu called out running towards Naruto "Fight me damn it!" he called out grabbing the blond's head and trying to stop him, yet the blond kept on walking like Natsu wasn't on his head.

**xXx**

Naruto scratched his chin as he looked at the map; he was currently in the guild, alone. Everyone else was out looking at the match between Erza and Natsu. He decided to pass on the match knowing what the outcome would be, he had been studying the map with Makarov ever since they got back, yet they couldn't decipher anything else.

The map also had some false information, either that or _Lullaby_ had been unsealed and then sealed somewhere else before. The location on the map that showed where _Lullaby_ was located was wrong, the real place where the artifact had been sealed for quite some time was more to the north. This puzzled the blond, either someone knew where some artifacts were located and resealed them somewhere else, or the map was playing tricks on him.

Why he believed the map was playing tricks with him was simple, last night he noticed the location drawn for the tower was off by five degrees to the south. He was certain the map's tower location moved on the map, but he couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried. The map itself gave away no magical energy; it was just a piece of paper. But then there was the fact that the map now portrayed an island Naruto had never seen in his entire life, no maps ever showed it before.

Before finding _Lullaby _the island did not exist on the map, but now it was there all of a sudden. This made the blond confused. His train of thoughts were shattered however as several outraged cries came from outside.

Curious, he rolled the scroll and placed it back in his pocket, he stood up and walked out of the guild. Everyone was yelling towards someone, his eyes narrowed as he saw the Royal Guard flag. He moved through the crowd until he reached the front, his eyes widened as he saw Erza being taken away – her hands chained – by the Royal Guard.

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked yet no one replied or even spared a glance at him. He growled as he summoned his flames and opened a small portal. He moved his hand inside and took out a pike, the portal closed and the flames vanished, he then slammed the pike on the ground. "Answer!" he shouted as the frog like man stopped and turned around with several guards.

Their eyes widened as they saw the pike and flag belonging to Castle Tazhok, the Castles emblem was a white wolf howling towards the moon. "What?" the man asked surprised with seeing the flag. "What is a member of Bosco's Royal Guard doing here?" he asked.

Naruto lowered the pike and summoned his flames again, recreating the portal. He placed the pike back inside and turned his attention to the man. "I am not part of the Royal Guard, I am a member of Fairy Tail that fought along side Knight Commander Klaus in his time of need." He stated moving his hands behind.

"You're…" he started only to have Naruto narrow his eyes at him as flames appeared behind him. The man gulped as he strengthened his resolve. "Erza Scarlet has been placed under arrest by the council, I am to take her to them." He said yet Naruto didn't budge nor did his glare lessen.

He then took a step forward. "Then I will come with you." Everyone's eyes widened at that.

"What are you saying?" a fellow guild member inquired.

"Naruto, you don't have to do this!" Erza called out yet the blond took more steps forward.

"I have business with the council as it is, besides…they've been wanting an audience with me for quite some time." He told them as he turned towards Makarov. "We will return shortly." He stated as the man understood, he nodded giving a small smile.

The group began to depart when Natsu shot forward. "Stop it! I won't let you take our friends!"

"Natsu!" Naruto called out turning his head towards him and glaring. "Trust me…everything is alright, we will return…don't do anything foolish…" he said as his gaze softened, he smiled before turning around and continuing his walk with the Royal Guard.

"Naruto?" Erza asked quietly as the blond took a position next to her. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I've been meaning to talk to the council, this is the best opportunity I have…and I'll make sure they release you no matter what." He growled as the girl looked at him shocked, she then smiled and looked down at the ground.

"Thank you…" she mumbled, the blond nodded in reply.

**xXx**

Naruto looked around with mild interest; the building was large and fancy. The guards had left them as they entered the building; he was walking towards the chamber where the council waited with Erza and the messenger. It seemed like they had a lot of faith in this buildings security that they left the blond to walk around unchecked – especially near their prisoner.

Trying to question the messenger proved futile, the man kept quiet about the council's wishes or why they wanted to arrest Erza. The blond had been thinking up of reasons by now on how to clear her name of whatever charges they would give.

They suddenly came to a halt as the messenger dropped on the ground in a low bow and Erza tensed, the blond looked up curiously wondering why they stopped. His eyes narrowed as he saw who it was, one of the council members, the younger ones.

"Sieglein…" Erza mumbled taking a step back, the blond's eyes widened as he saw her shivering slightly.

"Long time no see, Erza…" the council man said with a small grin and then turned towards the blond "…and you too _Ignis Deus_, or should I say, Naruto?" he asked as the blond tensed.

His eyes then moved back to the girl. "Oh don't worry, this is not my real body, this is but a projection. The real me is in Era." His body them flickered a little proving what he was saying, the girl visibly relaxed, yet the blond tensed.

He listened to the conversation; the councilman – Sieglein – told them how the rest of the members are also just projections. The blond's eyes narrowed at the tone in his voice, while it didn't seem like he had any arrogance in his voice, there was something off about it.

"…so they need a victim to place the blame on…" the blond heard and then everything clicked in his mind. The master had been informed how they destroyed the train station in _Oshibana_, they needed to blame someone for the recklessness.

His eyes narrowed as he saw Sieglein move closer to Erza and place his hand under her chin, he was whispering something to her yet the blond didn't care, he already reacted. His sword cut the projection in half making Sieglein chuckle as he moved back.

"Don't worry Naruto…I won't steal her from you…" he mocked as he grinned towards the blond, said blond moved in front of Erza and pointed his sword at the councilman's throat.

"Hurt her and I'll kill you…" he threatened, while he was no expert in reading someone's lips, he knew how to read body language, he knew Erza was afraid of him. He wasn't going to back down from his promise.

"Killing a councilman would have you executed _Ignis_…" the man stated with a grin as he started vanishing. "…I will meet you beyond the doors…"

As the man vanished the messenger stood up and began shouting at the blond, the blond grabbed him by the throat and threw him away, scowling at him.

"Naruto…thank you…" he sighed as he calmed down.

"What did he want?" he asked not turning to look back at her, yet silence was his answer. With a sigh he moved to the side and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Let's go…" he said as they began walking once more.

Moments later they entered the chamber where Erza was supposed to the trialed, the girl looked at him and he smiled with a small nod. As the girl walked forward he looked up towards each councilman. He inwardly smiled as he saw Shitou Yajima, Makarov told him that he could trust the old man, said man smiled towards the blond and nodded at him.

"We'll now start the mage trial…" the blond looked around, it seemed like they didn't mind him being there, they had been most likely informed already why he was here, or that he was coming.

The blond looked towards Sieglein, the man looked at the blond and grinned. "…Defendant Erza Scarlet, please take the witness stand." A frog like man said as Erza stepped forward and looked up at the council members.

"…you are suspected of destroying part of _Oshibana _Station and _Ryushika Canyon's _railway bridge…" the man said as Naruto took a step forward making the man stop.

The blond walked up towards the booth, stopping next to Erza. Everyone looked at him strangely, yet one council member looked excited by the changes.

"Honorable council, I know what you wish to do, yet I feel that placing these charges on her are unjustified." He stated as they started talking amongst each other.

"_Naruto…_" Erza whispered harshly as the blond glared towards her, making her keep quiet.

"You must understand _Ignis Deus_ that the people need answers, we cannot just tell them that Dark Mages were in the town, probably planning to kill them…" one of the members started as Naruto didn't move, yet listened carefully.

"…it would have caused mass panic…" Shitou picked up "…rumors would spread and people would begin to believe that nowhere was safe, that the Dark Mages would possibly be around the corner waiting to strike." He stated in a sage like voice making Naruto shake his head.

"That is true, fear is ever present…" the blond said lowly "…yet, is there no way to create a fake truth?" he asked as Shitou sighed slightly.

"_It's what I suggested…"_ he thought "We could, but people had already seen too much and miss Scarlet's proclamation at the station was more than enough to make put the pieces together." He stated as the blond looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow.

The girl shrugged muttering something along the lines that she didn't know their true plans back then and believing she would do more good than bad. The blond sighed as he turned back to the council.

"Then…I ask that you place the charges on me." He told them with a serious face as everyone blinked; one of the women moved her glasses on her face trying to comprehend what she had just heard.

"Very honorable _Ignis_." The head councilman stated in a booming voice. "Yet people had seen Miss Scarlet, these are just accusations that she would have to carry on her shoulder, we will not lock her up or anything like that."

Naruto sighed, there was no way to make them change their minds. He shook his head as he looked at the girl. "Sorry…" he mumbled as the girl smiled and reassured him it was alright.

"Then it is settled." The man said as Naruto sighed. "Now, unless there is something you wanted to talk to us about?" the man asked as Naruto looked up in confusion.

"Didn't you receive a letter from one of the guild masters?" he asked as the man brought his hand up to his chin and began thinking.

"Ah yes…we did, we did not read it however as the matter of _Lullaby_ got us worried." He said as he bowed a little. "I apologize for not reading your letter."

"No need for that much respect…" the blond muttered as he began talking "Before I begin, I'd like Erza to be pardoned as this is a matter I cannot let others hear." He stated as they nodded and motioned for a guard to escort her out.

The girl looked at Naruto wondering what was so important that he needed privacy when talking with the council. The blond waited until the doors closed before beginning his speech, the first thing he did as the doors closed was to pull out the map from his pocket.

"This honorable council is a map…" he stated as they all leaned forward, the blond showed them the map, yet he did not open it. "…this map was found in the Tower that once belonged to Zeref's most loyal mages, here in Fiore." He told them as they all tensed and began talking amongst each other.

"You all know of the Royal Guard protection treaty…" he began once more, they nodded as the blond continued with his speech. "…Knight Commander Klaus of Tazhok, located in Bosco, hadn't received word from the men he sent to Fiore to guard the tower for these three months…he was worried and asked me to take a look…"

"Wait…" Sieglein interrupted "…why didn't he just send word to us?" he asked leaning in his chair.

"The castle had been besieged, I am sure you heard of it." He stated as some of the members nodded knowing about the incident, some even knew of the blond's involvement in helping the Royal Guard lift the siege. "The least of his worries was to send out a message back then, for all he knew the message from his men might have been intercepted…"

"We understand that…" Belno stated as she tapped her finger on the papers in front of her. "…what about the tower? Why do you carry an item from the tower?" she asked.

He took a deep breath as he looked up towards them with a serious face. "The guards had been killed by a member of Grimoire Heart." As soon as he said that everything stopped, a pen dropped on the floor, the sound of it hitting the floor echoed in the chamber.

"What…?" Belno asked shaking at the news.

"Impossible…" another one stated as the entire place started to turn into chaos.

"Please listen!" the blond shouted drawing their attention "The mage is dead, I killed him, yet he was looking for this map!" he showed it to them once more "The map shows the location of each Dark Artifact that Zeref had created, but this map…its just a piece of the entire map."

"What are you saying?" Leiji inquired with a shaky voice.

"This map, when completed, will show the location of each Dark Artifact that Zeref created, there seems to be a catch as well, there is a riddle or sorts written on the map, I couldn't decipher much but from the little I could it seems that all the artifacts, if brought together, might be catastrophic." He explained as everyone began mumbling between each other.

Sieglein however narrowed his eyes towards the blond as he brought his hands up in front of his face. The blond lowered his hand and pocketed the map.

"We must reseal the artifacts!" one of the councilmen shouted.

"But where do you want to seal them? _Lullaby_ was found after all!" this proved to the blond that the artifact had been indeed sealed, his eyes widened as he realized the map had showed him the true location of _Lullaby_ after defeating the artifact.

"Honorable council…" he began once more drawing their attention "…sealing them will do no good…" he started as they all began murmuring.

"What do you mean?"

"The map knows…it can track them it seems…" he began to explain them what he had noticed with the map, they looked with horror at the blond as he explained everything.

"This isn't good…" the head council member stated slowly "…we don't even know how many artifacts that … man … created." He said slowly "And the little we have…" his voice died down as he shook his head.

"If I may…" Naruto started once more. "…I could search for them, find a way to seal them somewhere and find a way to destroy the map." He started as everyone looked at each other and began nodding, agreeing with the blond.

"How do you intend on doing that?" Sieglein asked as Naruto grinned in reply.

"I follow the map, find the rest of the map, gather everything I can find, seal them where no one can find them and throw the map in a Volcano…" he laughed at their faces, the plan seemed simple, too simple, but they all knew how hard it would be to actually find everything and seal everything away in different locations.

"It would be best if you gave them to us, and let us seal them…" Sieglein offered as the blond shook his head.

"I feel that this is something I must do as I started, I already carry an artifact on me…it's my task to make sure no Dark Mage every gets his or her hands on it…"

"I agree with the boy…" Shitou said standing up. "…he alone would be enough for this task."

"And yet…may I request help from other mages if I need it?" the blond asked as they all nodded.

"Now _Ignis Deus_…" the head councilman began "…there is the matter of why we were searching for you…" he began.

**xXx**

For Erza it seemed like an eternity, waiting at the door for the blond. It unnerved her as to what the blond had to discuss in private with the council. To think that he wanted to have an audience with them, she bit her lower lip trying to figure out why he wanted to talk with them. Surely he wouldn't have requested for her to leave if it was just the reason as to why they had been searching for him for so long.

She stood outside for an hour or more, waiting for the blond to return, with each minute she became more impatient. Finally, after two hours, the doors opened and the blond stepped out, alone. He closed the doors behind him and turned towards him with a big smile.

"Thank you for waiting." He said taking a small bow and chuckling.

"What did you do in there?" she asked as the blond placed his hand on her back and motioned for her to go. She started walking with him next to her.

"Most of it is a secret that I cannot tell…it's regarding something I found during my travels…" he said in a serious tone making her even more interested. "…however, the other part…" he chuckled, his chuckle then turned into laughter making her even more confused.

"What?" she asked "Don't laugh like that, tell me already!" she demanded with a pout as the blond wiped away a tear from his eye.

"They extended an invitation to join the council…" he said making the girl stop in her tracks and gape at him like a fist. The blond walked up to her and placed his hand under her chin, he moved his hand up closing her mouth.

"A fly might enter…" he said laughing at her as she blushed in embarrassment.

"So…what did you say?" she asked, it was common knowledge that the council – or most of it – hated Fairy Tail or had something against it due to the way it operated, or how some mages did.

"I accepted … though with a few terms of my own." He said with a smile "Fairy Tail comes first, I am a mage of Fairy Tail first and then a council member…"

"They agreed to that?" she asked amazed as the blond nodded with a grin.

"Yes and I even get to leave my projection in Era and never step foot in there unless really needed, so I can spend time in the guild with my friends." He said with a big grin as he grabbed Erza in a hug making her laugh at him.

"You are going to regret that decision…" she laughed as the blond looked at her strangely and when he tried to pry answers from her all she would do was laugh.

It was only when they returned to the guild that he understood what she meant. The next day after he revealed that he was now a member of the council Gray and Natsu came to him with crosses and garlic stating he was tainted and that they would exorcise the demon from within him.

The guild needed a new wall after that day.

* * *

**Note: **Still here…still working…hopefully you guys enjoyed the chapter. It will take a few chapters before Naruto will actually take part in any serious battles. (Phantom Arc most likely) Until then I will have more interactions with the characters and try to build the second plot more.

I fell that I could have done a bit more with the interaction between Naruto and the council, but at the same time I think I did it ok.

Updates will come a bit slower, I got a lot of work for college and a big project I need to finish until January.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 10**

"Hmm…no…too easy…bad pay…too far away…" the blond grunted in frustration as he looked over the board. All the jobs listed on the board either had a bad pay, were too easy or too far away from where Naruto wanted to go. His plan was to get a job close enough to the location of the tower pointed on the map, a sort of excuse for him to go and check the place out.

"Well?" he heard Luxus call, the blond spared a glance towards him and shook his head.

"I can see why you rarely take jobs…this is just humiliating…" the blond replied with a frown as the man grinned in reply.

With a sigh the blond walked to one of the tables and sat down to think, a day had passed since the meeting with the council. Gray and Natsu had annoyed him the entire day up until the moment he couldn't take it anymore and sent them both flying through one of the guilds walls. Needless to say, Makarov wasn't pleased with the fact that the guild lost a wall, Naruto along with the two had been forced to rebuild it. How they did it in one night no one knew and most likely never find out.

Several small 'thuds' were heard making the blond look up, he saw Luxus trying to keep himself awake and he could feel Mistgun's magic all over the place. He grinned as he stood up and walked over to the railing, he looked down at the guild. Everyone was asleep, Mistgun was scanning the board for a mission.

"I see it still has no effect on you Naruto…" the man said in an eerie voice as the blond chuckled.

"And it will never have…" he replied with a cocky grin as the man scoffed. "…one day you will have to stop doing this."

"Maybe…" was the reply, Naruto didn't know even now why Mistgun kept putting everyone to sleep when returning to the guild to take another job. He tried numerous times to get answers out of him, yet the man kept silent.

"Before you go…" he started as Mistgun stopped walking "…is there a connection between you and that guy Sieglein?" he asked as the man stiffened for a second before replying.

"None." And with that he walked towards the exit leaving the blond with even more unanswered questions. He moved away from the railing and took a seat at one of the tables just as the spell completely lifted from everyone.

He blocked out the chaos that ensued after everyone woke up opting to think of what possible connection the council man might have with Mistgun. They looked the same yet he knew they were two completely different people.

"That's why only the master knows his face…" the blond's eyebrows rose as he heard that, how could he forget about that? Maybe he could ask the man if there was a connection with the council man.

"No…" replied Luxus leaning over the railing. "…I know it as well." He told them taking a puff from the cigar he was smoking.

"Luxus?" they shouted, apparently they weren't expecting to see him here.

"Mistgun is really shy. Don't question it too much." He replied with a smirk as the blond chuckled.

"Luxus! Fight me!" and then he sighed as he heard Natsu call out. Sometimes he wondered why his friend wanted to fight with everyone in the guild, or at least all those that were higher in rank than him.

Luxus grinned even more. "When you defeat Erza…" he paused for a second "…no…" he said taking another pause "…when you defeat Naruto…' I might consider it." He told the dragon slayer as he threw his cigar away.

"Why you…" the man grinned as he pulled out another one and lit "…come down here!" Natsu called out as Naruto stood up and walked towards the railing.

"Oy! Some are trying to think here!" he shouted down making everyone look up at him with wide eyes.

"What are you doing up there?" Gray called out as the blond shrugged in reply.

"Hey! How come Naruto gets to go to the second floor?" Luxus laughed at Natsu and the question.

"I thought it was obvious! Only S-class mages can come up here!" he shouted down, the pink haired boy growled as he started running towards the stairs only to have a large fist smash down on him, stopping him in his tracks.

"You aren't allowed to go up yet Natsu." Makarov stated as he looked up towards his grandson. "And you Luxus…stop taunting him." He said as the mage in question shrugged and walked back to his seat.

"But…Naruto…" the dragon slayer started only for Makarov to shake his head.

"Considering everything he's done for the past years and the renown he has…I think S-class is more than suited for him." Makarov told the boy as he moved his hand away.

"So…how strong is Naruto then?" Lucy inquired as everyone started asking themselves the same question, the blond however stood quiet opting to look and see what happens next.

"I say he's stronger than Luxus!" Happy chimed in as the blond's eye brows shot up in surprise. Unfortunately said mage heard the comment and stood up, he walked back towards the railing and glared at the cat.

"Stronger than me?" he asked with narrowed eyes as he looked towards the blond, the blond mage was taken aback by the look in his eyes. "Hah! No one is stronger than me!" he shouted at everyone. "You better get this through your heads! I'm the strongest here, not Erza, not Mistgun, not that geezer and especially not blondy here!"

The fire mage watched as his colleague walked back to his seat with a scowl on his face. Naruto scratched his chin as he moved towards the table Luxus was sitting at, the man looked up towards the blond and glared slightly as he took a seat at the table.

They stood in silence looking at each other, staring at each other. Finally, Naruto broke the silence.

"So…what was that outburst back there about?" he asked leaning in the chair.

Luxus raised an eyebrow at the question before scowling. "You heard it didn't you." He replied as the fire mage shrugged nonchalantly making his blond colleague glare back at him.

"I couldn't care less who the strongest person in Fairy Tail is…" he replied as the man raised an eyebrow not understanding. "…what I want to know, is what happened to you." He replied making Luxus blink in confusion.

"Explain." He demanded as Naruto sighed and shook his head.

"That outburst…I didn't expect that kind of outburst from you of all people, what happened while I was gone?" he asked as the mage closed his eyes and sighed. He shook his head and leaned back in his chair before opening his eyes and glaring at the blond.

"That…is none of your concern…" he growled out as Naruto's eyes narrowed at the reply.

"I'm afraid it is…you are a friend, like it or not."

"And what if I tomorrow decide to stab you in the back?" he asked with a grin as Naruto's eyes widened, it was like he really meant it. Still, he steeled himself and glared back.

"I'd stop you…" he replied as a smirk appeared on his friends face.

"Will that be enough?" he asked making the blond grind his teeth in annoyance, he didn't know where this was going or what Luxus was trying to prove.

He shook his head as he stood up. "Hopefully…" he replied to the question turning around and walking away. "…I'd hate to kill one of Fairy Tail…" he whispered to himself, yet loud enough for Luxus to hear.

The mage stood in his seat looking at the blond's retreating figure. He moved his hand up to his cigar taking it out of his mouth; he shook his head as a sigh escaped his lips.

**xXx**

Naruto sighed sadly as he thought back about his little conversation with Luxus, out of all the people he knew of in the guild, before he left, Luxus had changed the most and his change wasn't a good one in his opinion. The man used to be a great person, helping out all those in the guild, he cared about them even though he never said so in public. The blond silently cursed, now he had something else to figure out, why Luxus had changed like this.

The blond looked up as he reached the edge of Magnolia, he could see his place in the distance. A small smile appeared on his face, it took half of his entire wealth to buy the terrain and then build the thing, but he was proud of what he had as a home.

It was a medium sized mansion similar to the ones nobles had, a tower had been built – as per Naruto's instructions – within the mansion, making it part of the entire place. It had three floors – six if you took into consideration the attic and the two additional floors on the tower – a medium sized staircase leading towards the entrance from the garden and a balcony on the second floor, on top of the entrance.

In front of the mansion, in the middle of the garden, he had ordered them to build a small square with a fountain. He had personally come to Magnolia on the day the mansion had been completed and the fountain as well to engrave the name of his mother on the stone at the statues feet. The statue itself was nothing out of the ordinary, an angel in kneeling position, as if praying.

It didn't take long for the blond to reach his home, the entire place was surrounded by a thick stone wall with a gate. The blond pushed the gate open and stepped inside, closing it behind him. He smiled as the few workers he had hired to tend to the garden greeted him, he nodded towards them and greeted them back.

The blond continued his walk, looking around and inspecting the place. Everything was neatly arranged and taken care of, he came to a halt as he spotted Mirajane in front of the fountain.

The girl turned around and blinked as she saw the blond standing there, she smiled and turned to face him. "You have a nice place here Naruto." She said looking towards the mansion one more time.

"Heh…thanks…" the blond replied walking up towards her and stopping next to her. The girl turned to face the fountain once more and looked at the name engraved at the bottom. "Don't worry…I changed…" he said looking down at the plate as well "…but I wanted to give her something…"

She smiled at that and nodded. "You really loved her." The blond chuckled in reply and nodded.

"Is Erza here too?" he asked after a moment of silence, the girl nodded with her smile still present.

"We didn't get to visit this place when you asked us, so we came today." She told the blond who nodded; he wanted them to be the first to see it as they had been the first friends he made in Fairy Tail when he arrived in this world. Makarov already knew of the place as he came from time to time to inspect it while he was gone.

Mistgun asked the old guild master as a favor, the man didn't know until a few days ago to whom the place belonged to. The old man was surprised to find out it belonged to none other than Naruto.

"Is everything alright at the guild?" Mirajane inquired, her friend nodded as he looked towards her.

"Mistgun paid us a visit today…" he said making the girl giggle knowing that the man would have put the entire guild to sleep just for a visit. "…then Luxus had an outburst." He told her with a sigh as she smiled sadly and shook her head.

"About him being the strongest?" she asked making the blond nod and look at her curiously. "He said that before, about two years ago…" she told him growing silent, Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder drawing her attention.

"It's alright…" he told her, he knew why she stopped so abruptly when mentioning that fact from two years ago. Her sister had died two years ago after all, he could see that it still pained her to think about it.

"How do you…" she started only for Naruto to shake his head.

"I was there on that day, with Mist…" he replied to her question making her eyes widen. "…I'm sorry I didn't approach you guys on that day…but I felt I would have done more damage than good." he had been there for the funeral, staying in the background with Mistgun. No matter how much it pained him to just sit back and watch his friends suffer, he couldn't bring himself to appear before them.

After the funeral he would have left, it would have hurt them even more if he told them or when he left. So he opted to keep quiet and watch from afar. Mirajane seemed to understand this as she gave a small smile and nodded, embracing the blond and trying to hold her tears back.

They stood in silence for several minutes before she pulled away from the blond. wiping the stray tears away from her eyes. She then rummaged through her pockets and took out a small package, handing it to the blond. He looked at it curiously but accepted it nonetheless. As he was about to open it Mirajane placed her hands on his drawing his attention, she shook her head at him.

"Don't open it now…" she said as she took her hands away. "…why don't you find Erza? She's somewhere inside." She said as the blond frowned slightly.

"What about you?" he asked as she gave him a small smile.

"Don't worry about me, I still have a lot to explore here." She replied giggling as Naruto shook his head. He smiled and nodded as he pocketed the small gift and walked towards the entrance.

Mirajane looked at his retreating form, her smile dropping slightly as she then looked down at the ground. _"You'd better take care of him Erza-chan."_ She thought as she turned around and walked towards the garden continuing her exploration of the area.

As Naruto stepped inside the mansion he was greeted by a man in his early sixties dressed in butler uniform. The man smiled at the blond as he greeted him.

"Welcome back master." He said as he handed the blond a scroll. "The council sent this."

"Already?" Naruto asked with a frown as he opened the scroll and skimmed through it, he shook his head as he rolled it back and handed it to the butler.

"Not important?" the man inquired as Naruto shook his head.

"Do you know where Erza is?" the man thought for a second before smiling and nodding.

"Miss Scarlet is on the top floor, I believe she said she wanted to see the tower." He replied as Naruto nodded and began walking towards the stairs. "And master Naruto…" the butler began making the fire mage stop and look at him "…Mister Mistgun left you a package in the study."

"Thank you Alfred." Naruto replied as he turned around and continued walking up the stairs.

Naruto inspected the place as he walked up the stairs to the last floor, the walls were painted white, several paintings adorned the walls, the majority were painted by him during his travels. Starting from the first floor and to the last floor he had placed all the paintings, he wondered what people would think if they saw them.

As he reached the last floor he turned to the left and made his way to the next set of stairs that lead towards the tower. The large door that the blond usually locked was now open; the stairs could be seen behind it.

The stairs were made in spiral; there were a total of fifty stairs until the first floor of the tower. The tower had a total of two floors, the first was used by the blond as a recreation area were he could think in quiet, the second had an alchemy lab where he experimented with different potions and herbs, mixing them and trying to create different compounds, he had yet to use any of them, everything he created was usually sold.

He walked up to the second floor seeing as the girl wasn't on the first, he found Erza examining the alchemy table and several elixirs he had been working on with great interest. The girl turned her head slightly towards him and nodded acknowledging his presence.

Naruto chuckled. "No 'hello'?" he asked as she turned around to face the table once more and smiled.

"I didn't know you brewed potions and elixirs." She stated with a hint of admiration in her voice. The blond walked next to her and picked up a large vial from the table that she had been eyeing. "What exactly do you brew?" she inquired.

"Elixirs that can strengthen you, give your magic a significant boost, potions that can heal you…stuff like that." He replied as he shook the vial before placing it back on the table "…I'll have to start from scratch again on that one…" he whispered to himself.

"What's bad about that one?" she asked him as she took the vial in her hands and inspected it.

"It was meant to be a sleep potion, yet it turned to be poison…" he replied with a frown as she looked towards him with surprise. "…no, I don't brew poisons…well…not always." He chuckled as she frowned "What? Don't tell me you've never coated your swords with poison." He said with a deadpanned expression as she shook her head.

"You and I both know we aren't supposed to kill." She lectured him before placing the vial back on the table.

"I don't brew that kind of poison…" he said sternly, his eyes narrowed as if he had been insulted. "…paralyzing poison, sleep poison…nothing deadly." He told her crossing his arms over his chest and making Erza look away embarrassed. _"As for killing…you have no idea how deep my hands are in blood…"_ he thought.

"You have a nice place…" she stated after a moment of silence making the blond smile. "…must have cost a fortune…" she looked at him in the eyes making the mage grin at her.

"It did…took over half of my entire money to buy the land and then build this from scratch." He told her as he walked towards a window and looked at the garden down below. "I wanted a place like this, where I can come and relax…"

"The guild not as relaxing as it used to be?" she inquired walking next to the blond, giggling slightly as she asked the question.

"Its fun…but you can't expect me to sleep there…or live my whole life." He replied, not looking away from the window. "Even you, Mira and the rest have your own place." He continued sparing a glance in her direction.

She smiled as she nodded once; she then turned towards the blond and moved closer. Naruto looked at her curiously; he turned to face her as she inched closer and placed her hands on his chest. Naruto felt his heart beat faster at her actions; he nervously moved his hands up and placed then around her waist.

Erza's smile widened at his action making the blond's heart beat even faster, his brain had shut down, everything seemed natural now. She slowly inched closer towards him, he relaxed as he closed his eyes and moved closer as well.

"Naruto! Erza-chan!" their eyes snapped open as they heard Mira's voice echo through the stairs, they looked at each other and jumped away as the girl appeared on the second floor of the tower. "There you are! We should head back, master is probably wondering where we went." She said as Erza nodded and looked towards the blond.

"I'll see you tomorrow Naruto." The girl stated as she turned around and started walking down the stairs.

"Come soon!" Mira cheerfully added as she walked up to the blond and gave him a peck on the cheek, she then turned around and walked down the stairs, following her red head friend.

Naruto stood watching the stairs for several minutes as he processed what had happened, he looked down at the ground grabbing his chest, wondering what that was. He closed his eyes and sighed, letting a small smile appear on his face as well.

**xXx**

Naruto watched the fire crackle in the fireplace, his mind was filled with numerous questions to which he had no answers. He looked at the letter in front of him, on the table. It was the same letter from the council, his butler brought it back to him and insisted that he read it but no matter how many times he went through it he couldn't understand what the councilman that wrote the letter wanted.

Everything on it was just gibberish, he had tried to make contact with the councilman with the use of his image in Era yet he had no such luck. The man didn't seem like he wanted to talk and acted as if he hadn't set the letter in the first place. It confused the blond, his reactions were genuine, he was genuinely surprised to hear that he had written a letter of sorts and set it to the blond.

With a sigh the blond picked up the letter again and threw it away on a large pile of papers. He then picked up the small package Mirajane had given him, he had forgotten about it last night. Carefully, he unwrapped it, a small box was now in his hands.

He studied the box with interest as he opened it, he turned it upside down and let the content drop in his palm. His eyes widened at what he saw, in his hand stood the memento that had been broken years ago, a day before he had left the guild. A small piece of paper was attached to it, he unwrapped it and read the contents, his eyes widening even further as a small smile appeared on his lips.

"Master Naruto." the mage turned his head to the side and nodded to the old butler. "I believe its time." He stated as Naruto looked towards the fireplace.

"Tell me why you insisted on serving me." he asked as the man smiled.

"You've done my family a lot, helped us a lot, it seems only logical that I help you." He replied as he placed a cup on the table in front of the blond.

Said blond smiled as he picked the cup up and sipped its contents, a pleased sigh escaped his lips as he leaned into the couch. "Master…" the butler said again as the blond's eyes snapped open.

"Damn, I forgot…" he stood up and placed the cup on the table, he motioned for Alfred to follow him. The two left the room and walked through the hallway, going down the stairs until reaching a large metal door at the end of the corridor in the basement. Naruto took out a key and opened the door, they stepped inside and continued walking.

The scenery changed as they went through the door, it was like they had stepped into a cave. The temperature began to rise as well with each step they took. Moments later they appeared in a large round room, with a pit in the middle. Alfred stopped walking, letting the blond move forward until he reached the end where he came to a halt.

Flames shot upwards creating the form of the elemental, it stood in front of the blond fire mage, it then bowed towards its master. _**"I've completed what you asked of me."**_ its voice echoed throughout the chamber as fire shot up in between them. _**"Take it."**_ It commanded as the blond took a step forward and extended his hand towards the flames.

His hand moved through the flames until he felt something, he grabbed what was inside the flames and pulled it. Slowly, his sword emerged from the flames, yet it looked different now. The blade was longer, sharper and fire constantly traversed through paths created on the blade. The leather hilt had flames sprouting out of it, slowly moving around the blond's hand as if dancing.

"_**The sword has been strengthened as you wished master…"**_ the elemental stated as Naruto twirled it around for a few moments before looking up at his summon _**"…its powers have increased, its able to use more fire based attacks now."**_

"What about the previous requirements?" he asked moving his finger on the blade.

"_**Nullified…to a certain extent…"**_ it replied making Naruto look at it curiously _**"…I've given the blade my power, the flames that you see moving through it are mine…"**_ Naruto looked at the blade now understanding what the flames were _**"…each time you use a spell, a small part of the flames will vanish…it would require quite an attack to completely drain it."**_

"What happens if I do drain its powers?" he asked sheathing the sword.

"_**Return to me and I shall restore its powers."**_ The elemental stated.

Naruto nodded at it, Inferno bowed before him before submerging in the lava underneath it. The blond fire mage turned around and sighed as he walked past his butler, the man turned around and followed his master as he left the elementals chamber.

"It still amazes me every time I see him." Alfred said as the blond closed the door behind them and locked it.

"He is something…" Naruto replied pocketing the key and walking towards the stairs. "…I'm surprised however that he managed to strengthen my sword so much…the power I felt when I grabbed it…it was breath-taking." He admitted as he paused for a second while climbing the stairs. He shook his head continuing what he was doing.

"Naruto!" the blond looked up as he heard his name called, he looked towards the end of the hallway, at the door. Erza stood there with a serious expression on her face.

"Erza?" he asked surprised as Alfred excused himself and left. "What are you doing here?"

"Master wants us to go after Natsu, Happy, Lucy and Gray." She explained. "Come, there is no time." The blond blinked as she turned around and walked out the door through which she had come. He shook his head as he ran towards her.

"Alfred! Take care of the place! I'm leaving for some time!" he called out as he closed the door behind him. He looked around, trying to find where his red head friend was now. He saw her moving towards the gate at a quickened pace.

"Hey! Wait up!" he shouted running after her, the girl however didn't stop, she continued walking making the blond in order to reach her. "What's the hurry?" he asked "What happened?"

"Tch…" she started, she was clearly pissed off "…Natsu had Happy steal a S-ranked job yesterday…" his eyes widened at that "…they left with Lucy…master sent Gray to bring them back but he has yet to return, he wants us to drag them back."

Naruto paused for a second as he thought he saw flames appear behind her, she was definitely angered by this. "Ok…" he said carefully as he moved next to her.

"Wait…do you have any plan?" he asked as the girl turned towards him and glared, he backed away with a nervous laugh, maybe it was better to let her lead this time.

**xXx**

Erza's eyebrows twitched in anger, the captain of the pirate ship she had commandeered was laying on the floor shivering like a baby. That was not what angered her however, she had sent the blond to tend to the crew, to make them work faster so that they would reach Galuna faster. Yet, she started to doubt the blond was doing what she had told him to, the ship was moving slower and the racket from outside wasn't helping at all, she could barely think.

With an angry sigh she stood up and walked towards the door, slamming it open. She walked through the hallway until she reached the deck. Her eyes widened at what she was seeing, bottles of rum were laying all over the deck with crew members laying in a pool of their own drool or rum, unconscious or barely conscious.

She grit her teeth wondering what had happened, Erza looked around trying to spot the blond. Her eyes widened as she saw the blond sitting next to a large barrel on the other end of the deck, ten pirates were all around him. She walked closer, her eyes widening even further at what she was seeing.

There were six cups next to three pirates, all of them filled with rum, empty bottles of rum all around them and a small ball in front of the blond.

"Alright…" Naruto slurred out as he grabbed the ball. "…get ready…" he took a pause as he hiccupped "…to lose…" he threw the ball towards the cups, missing them all and making one fall on the ground. The pirates laughed at him as he glared towards them.

"Drink!" they all shouted as Naruto grabbed a bottle of rum and opened it, he looked at it with a stupid smile on his face as the others chanted for him to drink. He then turned it upside down in his mouth and began to drink away the contents. As the last drop fell from the bottle he threw it away and gasped.

"Woo!" they all shouted as Naruto raised his hands in the air and began to bow at them as they cheered. Erza's eyebrows twitched as she saw all that, she stomped over to the blond gaining his attention.

"Oh hey there…" he said falling on his face, he moved his head so that he could see her again. "…why don't you join us cutie?" he asked chuckling and hiccupping at the same time.

"Naruto…" Erza began in a low voice as the blond jumped on his feet. His body moved around as he tried to gain his balance.

"That's my name!" he shouted with a large smile, his smile suddenly dropped as he lost his balanced and fell forward crashing on top of the girl.

Erza blushed as she realized their position, she then growled as the stench reached her nose. "Oy…why is this place moving so much?" she heard him ask "I think I'm going to be sick…" he said slowly making her eyes widen in fear.

A shriek echoed on the sea, reaching the shores of Fiore and making fishermen look towards the horizon wondering what they had heard.

* * *

**Note: **Another one done, will take more time...but...I have a question for you readers and if the answer is what I am looking for I might have the next chapter up faster. The question is this: If there is anyone that has worked with (or is still working with) 3ds Studio Max, can you please tell me how to export textures that I create within the program? I've searched for days over the web and didn't find anything to help me with that. So yea...if there is anyone that can answer if it works, next chapter will come out faster


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 11**

"You will wait here." the three pirates nodded while holding to each other and trembling in fear at the armored mage in front of them, beside her stood her companion – barely. They knew better then to cross her, what she told the captain was frightening, the warning she left him with if he dared to leave made everyone pale.

The girl glared towards them one last time before turning around and moving towards the smoke in the distance. Her companion dropped on his knees and clutched his stomach couching several times. "Why did I drink?" he asked himself as he tried to keep his stomach from spilling out on the sand.

She didn't reply, only spared a glace towards him before turning around and continuing her walk. The male bowed his head in shame, maybe he went a bit overboard, but just standing there and playing the role of an Overseer wasn't his style.

With a sigh, he stood up and started walking away, trying to catch up with his red haired friend. The ground shook for a moment making him lose his balance and fall on the ground face first, he grumbled under his breath before standing back up on his feet. He looked up towards the sky.

"Now I've seen everything…" he said to himself as he saw the giant rat flying in the sky. The blond rubbed his eyes and looked back up, the rat was still there. He moved his hand in one of his pockets and took out a bottle of rum, he looked down at it with a deadpanned expression. "Definitely the last time I drink…" he muttered as he threw the bottle away and stood back up.

"Erza!" he called out, no reply came making him sigh. "Come on! Are you still angry?" he shouted and once more silence greeted him. He sighed and shook his head as he closed his eye and concentrated, he could feel large concentrations of magic in three different locations, the closest one was in the same direction Erza went.

The blond's eye opened as he moved forward, leaning against the trees each time he felt like he was losing his balance. A strange sensation washed over him as he walked through the forest, he stopped for a second and looked around. He dismissed the sensation as he couldn't see anything or feel anything around him.

**xXx**

Lucy didn't know which was worst, fighting against an enemy that could control the spirits you summoned or having to face her rescuer. Looking in Erza's eyes she could only go with the latter, having to be dragged back to Fairy Tail by Erza was not something she had planned on.

The blond looked towards the fire mage, as if pleading him to save her from the red haired girl's clutches, yet the mage seemed like he was on a leash as well. One look from Erza made him back away with a nervous look. Lucy looked down at the ground dejectedly, this wasn't going well.

Still, maybe there was some way out of this mess. "Erza, listen!" she called out, the girl turned towards her with a glare that promised pain, lots of pain. She gulped as she scratched the back of her head nervously.

"Lucy, are you safe?" they heard Happy's voice, Naruto tried to warn the cat to turn tail and run, but it was too late. By the time Happy realized who was with Lucy it was too late, Erza had him in her grasp, holding the cat by his tail.

"Where's Natsu?" she asked not sparing a glance towards the cat. The blond fire mage sighed as he walked next to Erza.

"This wouldn't have happened if you didn't steal that job…" he mumbled loud enough for Happy to hear, the cat lowered its head in shame.

"Listen to me…!" Lucy called drawing both mage's attention. "I apologize for selfishly coming here, but this island is currently in a grave condition!" she shouted. Naruto raised an eyebrow at that as he looked towards his companion with the corner of his eye, she didn't seem fazed by what the girl stated.

"There are some people who are trying to revive a frozen devil!" Lucy continued, while Erza still didn't seem fazed by the news Naruto did. He visibly stiffened at the news as he moved his hand towards his swords hilt. "…we want to save this island somehow…" he heard her conclude. He didn't really care what the other reasons were at that point, the news of a demon and people trying to revive it was more than enough to gain the blond's interest and approval in continuing the mission – to some extent at least.

"I'm not interested." Their eyes widened as they heard Erza say that, the fire mage turned towards her with a shocked expression on his face, his mind not comprehending what she had just said.

"Then…at least let us finish the job to the en-…" she was cut off as the tip of Erza's sword reached her neck. She gulped as she took a step back, the red haired girl's glare hardened.

"Job? No…You guys betrayed the master…don't assume you can get away with it just like that…" she told her. "We will get Natsu and Gray…and then leave this place." She ordered.

A hand appeared on her blade, her eyes moved towards the blond next to her as he pushed the blade down. "Leave?" he asked as he made eye contact with her, the girl glared towards him.

"Yes…leave…we came to retrieve them." She stated as Naruto turned his body around, facing her. He glared towards Erza as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Did you not hear what she just said?" he inquired as she glared back towards him.

"Did you not hear what I said?" she retorted as Lucy and Happy looked at the two as they argued about the information she had given them.

"There is a devil on this island, who knows how powerful, you're going to just turn and walk away?" he asked in anger "What if they actually revive it? Do you have any idea what might happen?"

The girl didn't flinch nor did she give any signs of changing her opinion. "No I don't…but that is not our mission, now stand down." She ordered as the blond's eye narrowed.

"Stand … down?" he asked slowly as he grit his teeth. "No Erza...I will not stand down!" he shouted making her eyes widen. "While I do agree this is not a mission for them, this is a matter I just cannot ignore!"

"Are you going to go against what master said?" she asked slowly, her eyes darkening as the blond crossed his arms over his chest once more.

"If that's what it takes to stay here and finish the job…" he paused as he looked towards the mountain. "…then yes." He finished looking back towards the red haired mage.

The girl bit her lip as she looked away in anger. She turned to berate him only to realize the blond had started leaving already. "Keep this in mind…sometimes you must break certain rules to ensure peoples safety." He stated as he vanished in the forest leaving the fuming girl behind.

Erza clenched her fists as she turned to face Lucy and Happy, scaring them as they saw the murderous look in her eyes. "Where is Gray?" she demanded as Lucy gulped and Happy moved behind the blond girl in fear.

**xXx**

The blond fire mage swung his sword in anger, cutting the forest foliage out of his way. His mind couldn't comprehend why Erza would just back down when something such as a devil or demon threatened to be unleashed upon the world. Wasn't it their job to help people first and foremost? Sure Makarov told them to retrieve the mages that took the S-class job without his knowledge but that didn't mean they couldn't stay for a few more hours or a day to stop a summoning ritual or whatever was going on here.

Naruto stopped as he bent forward and grabbed his stomach, his head started throbbing and he felt sick. He was having problems seeing normally due to the large amount of alcohol in his system. He grit his teeth, today was a bad day, he couldn't fight like this. He needed to find Natsu and Gray, or at least one of them, and have them help him with this matter, before Erza found them and took them back to the guild.

His eyes widened as he felt the ground begin to shake, he looked up towards the mountain in wonder. His eyes widened even further as he saw the mountain move, falling down on one side. A smile appeared on his face knowing who might be responsible for that, it also let the blond know where to go now.

With a chuckle, he stood up and began running towards the mountain. After a few steps the blond began to stagger once more. "Ugh…I don't have time for this…" he muttered to himself as flames shot around him, they moved closer to him until they consumed him. Finally, a large flame shot towards the sky making its way towards the mountain. As it reached the base of the mountain the flame crashed in the ground and dispelled itself.

Naruto stood on the scorched ground panting slightly, he looked up and – with much effort – stood back on his feet. A hand suddenly grabbed him and helped him stand up, the fire mage looked to his side. "Gray?" he asked as his friend kept staring at the entrance.

"Please let me handle this fight." He stated making the blond chuckle.

"I'm not fit for a fight…I'm just going to play the role of a support today." The dark haired mage didn't seem to hear what the blond said as he moved forward, entering the temple.

Naruto shook his head as he rubbed his eye and started moving. Upon reaching the entrance he placed his hand on the wall and looked around, impressed by the ancient structure.

His eyes widened as the ground began to shake, he felt the temple tilt to the right. Losing his balance, he fell on one knee and waited for the shaking to end. As soon as it ended he stood back up and moved inside the temple.

"Get back here!" the blond's head snapped up as he heard the familiar voice echo through the temple hallways. His eyes narrowed as he started running through the hallway, he could hear Natsu's demands echo all around him, it was hard to pinpoint his exact location.

Finally, he came to a large chamber. Looking around the blond spotted the dragon slayer and an unknown person in the middle of said chamber. His eyes widened as he saw the person vanish in thin air.

"Oy, where are you?" the dragon slayer shouted as he looked around frantically, his eyes rested on the blond as he blinked. "Naruto? What are you doing here?" he inquired as the blond walked up towards his friend.

As he reached Natsu he smiled and then scowled as he slapped the backside of his head. "Idiot…" the blond muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Hey, what was that for!" the dragon slayer shouted as Naruto shrugged nonchalantly and looked away.

"Oh I don't know…maybe it's related to the fact that you stole an S-ranked mission!" he shouted at the end while looking back towards his friend who acted as if he didn't hear the blond.

"Yea…listen we have other problems now, that damn bastard went to finish the ritual." Natsu said seriously as the blond nodded.

"Any idea where he went?" he asked as the pink haired boy grinned in reply and pointed towards the floor.

Naruto's eyebrow shot up before a look of understanding appeared on his face. "I see." He stated as he extended his right hand towards the dragon slayer. A medium sized fireball appeared in his palm, the pink haired mage looked at it curiously and then at the blond. "A little boost." Naruto replied to the unspoken question, making Natsu grin in reply.

The pink haired dragon slayer bit into the fire, eating half of it in one go. He took a second bit from the remaining fire eating it up and burping in satisfaction. "So much better than before." He said giving the blond a thumbs up.

"I try my best." He replied with a grin as the dragon slayer punched his knuckles together. Fire appeared around his hands as he punched the floor making a massive hole, he began to continuously punch the floor until it collapsed.

Naruto took a step forward and peered down in the hole his friend made. He whistled slightly, when he read about 'The Salamander' and his destructive power he didn't image it like this.

He took a deep breath before jumping in the hole, seconds later he reached the basement. He crashed in the ground making dust lift in the air, he then looked around. Naruto then heard Natsu shout and turned towards him, his eyes widened as he saw the large demon encased in ice.

"Deliora?" he asked himself, he knew that the demon had vanished without a trace after ravaging villages. He never expected to find it here however.

"Oh?" a voice echoed from the right "If it isn't the great _Ignis Deus_." Naruto turned his head to the side and looked at person that called his name with narrowed eyes.

"I assume you're the one trying to revive the demon." He stated in a low voice as the person grinned behind the mask.

"Naruto!" Natsu called out "This isn't good! Someone is performing the ritual!" the blond turned to face the demon once more, his eyes widened as he saw a ray of light hitting the ice and melting it away.

"Shit! Natsu go and stop the ritual!" Naruto shouted as the pink haired mage began running towards the exit.

"Way ahead of you!" he called out, however, halfway towards the exit he fell on his back. The blond turned towards him with shock written over his face, he then looked up at their enemy with narrowed eyes.

A pillar of fire appeared behind the blond which shot towards the blond's target. Before it could even reach its target however it dissipated and the blond felt a strange force hitting him and throwing him in the wall.

"It's useless, just sit and enjoy the show."

"Like hell we'd do that!" Natsu shouted as he charged forward. Naruto shook his head as he stood back up and summoned fire in his hands; he formed a bow and pulled the string back. Three fiery arrows appeared on the bow. "Get down!" he shouted as the dragon slayer complied and moved out the way, the three arrows wheezed past him and moved towards their target.

Their enemy scoffed as he moved his hand in front of him making the arrows vanish in this air. His eyes widened however as three arrows appeared in front of him out of nowhere. He jumped out the way, the arrows crashed in the wall behind him exploding on impact and leaving a burnt mark on the wall.

He turned to face the two Fairy Tail mages and grinned. As the two prepared to attack once again a deafening roar stopped them in their tracks. The blond looked with wide eyes as the demon known as Deliora roared, its upper body freed from the ice that contained it.

"There it is!" the man shouted as the beast roared a second time.

Naruto looked towards Natsu who was in a state of shock of what was happening. "Natsu!" he called out trying to draw his attention, it seemed to work as the pink haired mage turned towards him "Do as I tell you and we will take it down before it can even strike!" he called out as the man turned towards the two.

"Ah…I almost forgot about you." He stated as a powerful force suddenly appeared around the blond making him crash in the ground and unable to move anymore "I can't have you interrupt this ritual oh legendary Demon Slayer." He stated with a wicked grin as the demon roared for the third time.

"You bastard!" Natsu shouted as he charged forward only to have a ball hit him in the chin, making him fall on his back.

He jumped back on his feet and summoned his powers, he punched the ball shattering it, its pieces falling on the ground. Moments later the pieces lifted up in the air and reconstructed the ball which moved towards the pink haired mage once again.

This time he anticipated the attack, the dragon slayer ducked as the ball wheezed over his head. He grinned, his moment of victory however was cut short as the ball suddenly slammed in his stomach, throwing him in the air.

While Natsu was fighting the mysterious mage Naruto was struggling to stand up on his feet. He looked up towards the demon and his eyes widened, it was freed. Just then he felt the weight lift up from his body, he looked towards Natsu and was surprised that his friend had defeated the mage.

Gritting his teeth, the blond stood up and looked towards the demon. The demon roared once again making the blond grab his ears in pain, as soon as the throbbing died down he heard Natsu shouting. He turned towards the dragon slayer one more time and his eyes widened as he saw Gray in a position he had only read about.

"Gray!" he shouted gaining his attention. "Stand down!" he called out as the ice mage glared in reply.

"It's the only way! I have to seal it!" he called out.

"You retard!" the blond shouted, using that opportunity Natsu moved in front of Gray, facing the demon.

"Move out of the way Natsu!" the ice mage called out, the mage in question turned his head slightly towards Gray and looked at him with a serious expression.

"I stopped you earlier because I didn't want you to die." He stated as Gray's power began to vanish slightly "Didn't my voice reach you?"

The ice mage looked at his friend at a loss of words. His eyes suddenly widened as he saw the demon move. "Look out!" Deliora raised its arm to strike, Naruto's eye widened as he took a step back. He then relaxed as he noticed something.

"It's dead…" he whispered to himself as cracks appeared on the demons arm, moments later its entire body crumbling, piece of it falling on the ground all around them.

As the demon vanished, its body lying in pieces on the ground Naruto let out a sigh and let his body drop on the ground, his back resting on the wall behind him. He had read about the Deliora, if the stories were true then the demon was as strong or close in strength to Inferno. He didn't know if Gray and Natsu could take it down, he knew he couldn't take it down in his current state.

The blond looked towards his companions, a small smile appearing on his face.

**xXx**

"Seriously…you should have waited…" Naruto snickered as Erza berated him, she was helping him walk out of the temple. The rest of the mages were already outside, celebrating their accomplishment.

"When it comes to demons I just can't wait for a reply." He stated as the girl spared a glance towards him. "You wouldn't understand." He continued, stopping her from asking any question she might have asked.

"And why is that?" she asked as the blond kept silent, she glared slightly at him as she let go of his arm and pushing him to the side, the blond staggered trying to regain his balance. As soon as he did he glared towards the girls retreating form before sighing in defeat and following her.

Once outside he watched in mild fascination as Erza held both Happy and Natsu from trying to run away, at the same time giving them a small speech – berating them – for their little theft.

He then looked towards Gray as he helped his old friend walk out of the temple. "It's done!" he turned back towards Natsu as he and Happy began to celebrate their victory, Lucy and Gray soon joined them in their celebration, thought Gray not as enthusiastically as them.

Naruto walked forward, stopping next to Erza, a grin present on his face. "I think they forgot something…" he whispered to her as the girl grinned towards him, she turned to face the four and put her serious face on. The blond coughed gaining their attention.

As soon as they laid their eyes on Erza's serious face they began to shiver as the mood died down, Gray looked away trying to keep himself composed – even though he was shivering uncontrollably.

She began to explain them that even though they will be punished for what they had done, they still had one last thing to do before completing the quest. Naruto turned around and began walking away as they began to question Gray's old friend for answers.

**xXx**

The way back to Fiore was uneventful, Naruto watched as the pirates did their work in taking them back, this time making sure not to get close to the rum anymore. While he was doing that Erza kept a close eye on Natsu and Gray, just to make sure they didn't try running away.

As they reached the port they made their way towards the train station when the blond stopped. He looked towards a nearby alleyway and then back at his companions. He excused himself, telling them that he had business to attend to and vanished in the crowd. His friends didn't inquire as to what business he had and continued walking.

Naruto looked around him before entering the alley, when he was sure that no suspicious eyes were watching him nor that any of his comrades followed him he walked deeper into the alley.

"Impressive, your senses are sharp as ever." A voice praised the blond as he stopped walking and looked in front of him.

"Doubt I'd be able to sense you if you didn't want me to Mistgun." He replied with a grin as the man nodded, it was true. "So…to what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked as the man walked out of the shadows, stopping in front of the blond.

"There's been trouble at the guild while you were gone." He stated making the blond look at him with a serious expression. "The guild was attacked by Phantom Lord and completely trashed." He stated making the blond stiffen and clench his fists.

"Those assholes…" he rasped out as he closed his eye in anger.

"Don't…" Mistgun started while raising his hand in front of the blond, said blond looked up at his friend with anger in his eyes. "…I know you want to make them pay…but we have other business to take care of."

His eyes widened at what he heard. "What's more important than helping the guild?" he growled out, trying to keep his voice down, they didn't need people coming here and listening to their conversation.

"I've dug up some information on them…most likely master Makarov won't sit it out for too long and Fairy Tail will strike Phantom Lord…if not, it will be the other way around." He explained as Naruto visibly relaxed "Either way, there will be a battle between the two guilds, we will have to make sure Fairy Tail wins it."

Naruto nodded. "So what's the plan?" he asked as Mistgun pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to the blond. He unrolled it, it was a map with several X's all around Magnolia at few kilometers distance.

"Those are the subdivisions of Phantom Lord…we will take them out and cut Phantom Lord from their reinforcements, making the odds even." The masked mage answered as the blond grinned.

"Fifty-fifty?" he asked as his partner nodded. "Alright, I'll take the North-Western ones…"

"That will leave the South-Eastern ones for me." Mistgun replied as the blond rolled the map and pocketed it.

"Where do we meet after it's done?" he asked.

"Porlyusica's forest. However, if you wish to join the fight feel free to do so. But deliver the flags to the forest beforehand." He told the blond as he turned around and began walking away, vanishing in the shadows.

The blond grinned as he turned around and walked out of the alley, there was just another matter he needed to take care of before going to take out the subdivisions. He closed his eyes and concentrated until he felt the pull of his image.

In Era, the image of the blond shimmered for a second, it narrowed its eyes as it walked out of the study and through the hallways. He made his way to the messenger post on the bottom level, the guards saluted as they let him pass.

Once inside he scanned the area, half of the messengers were gathered here, relaxing – either drinking, chatting, sleeping or minding their own business. With a wave of his hand the entire room was flooded by magic, the image made sure not to use too much so as not to alert the rest of the councilmen.

In a matter of seconds the messengers began falling asleep, succumbing to the image's magic. A little trick it had learned from the vast library. Pleased with what it had done, the image turned and walked out the door, closing it behind it.

"I have a job for you two." It stated to the guards which looked at it curiously. "The messengers have been working a lot, they deserve a day off. If any come back tell them to rest and to forget whatever they had to do." He stated in a calm voice.

"But sir…" one of the guards started "…what if they have an important message?" he asked as the image raised an eyebrow and looked towards the guard.

"Tell them to rest…it can wait till tomorrow." It stated as the guards nodded, complying with the order.

Satisfied with the answer the image began walking away, a smirk forming on its lips. The way was now clear, the last thing that the blond needed was for the council to get the news of a battle between two guilds, he was more then sure they would place the blame on Fairy Tail, he couldn't allow something like that.

Any messengers that would arrive with an important message would be dealt by the image, unless the message was regarding the battle between the two guilds the image wouldn't interfere.

Slowly, the blond opened his eyes and looked around, people walked past him – none suspected that he had done something. With a grin he cracked his knuckles and turned towards the north, it was time to deal with the little pests.

**xXx**

The walk to the first subdivision was uneventful, the roads were free of bandits, or it might have been the fact that any bandits knew by now not to try and attack him. He had quite a reputation; they feared him and knew not to cross paths with him. He stopped as a small town appeared in front of him, the first subdivision was here.

He moved his hand up to his eye-patch; before he could lift it he stopped and thought it over. Maybe he shouldn't, it would be too much if he used that power, he wasn't aiming to kill anyone, just to beat them until they couldn't walk for a whole week. Slowly, he lowered his hand and began walking in the town.

Everything looked normal; it was just another town in Fiore. Merchants on the streets selling goods, people buying or walking around tending to their business. He looked around trying to spot a bar so he could gather information on the subdivision, just listening to people around would give him the answers he needed.

His eyes rested on a bar to his right. Slowly he walked towards the entrance and opened the door, he walked inside and looked around, no one turned to see who entered. That was good, he didn't need people to recognize him just yet, if they did they might become suspicious and alert the guild of his presence.

Naruto walked towards a table in one of the corners, away from people's view. He sat down and looked around, most of those present in the bar seemed to be travelers or locals, he couldn't spot any mages.

After fifteen minutes the doors opened again and three people entered the bar. They walked towards the counter and sat on the stools there. They began chatting and laughing as the bartender brought them their drinks. The blond raised an eyebrow as he leaned forward and concentrated.

"…and Master Jose said we'd get a shitload of money…" one of them state before taking a big gulp "…ravaging Fairy Tail is just a bonus." He laughed as Naruto grinned, they were part of the target guild.

"What about the council?" one of them inquired as the first one laughed.

"Master Jose said the council will place the blame on Fairy Tail, the plan is to have them disbanded…" he replied as his colleague cheered next to him.

"…maybe we will get one of their members…having one of their S-class mages would be beneficial…" he stated as Naruto stood up and began walking towards them.

"Imagine having the Titania in our guild…" the first one whispered with a big grin as the other two began day-dreaming.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" a voice inquired from behind them.

"Hah, you don't know half of it pal." The one in the middle replied as he turned around to face the newcomer. His face morphed into that of fear as he dropped the cup he was holding.

In front of him stood Naruto grinning like a madman and punching his left palm with his right fist. He moved his head left and right several times making cracking sounds. "I heard you are part of Phantom Lord..." he began "…I also heard you ravaged our guild." He finished with an insane look in his eyes.

Moments later a body was thrown out of the bar, the entrance was broken as the body rolled on the ground in the middle of the street. Another one was then hurled out of the bar through one of its windows, the man crashed in a cart with fruits. Finally, a third one was thrown through the bar's wall, making a large hole in it, the body landed in the nearby fountain.

Seconds later the blond walked out of the bar with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked at the three mages as they groaned in pain. The blond shook his head, they were incredibly weak, all he did was punch them several times in the face, kick them in the nuts and then throw them away. He didn't even have to use his fire.

The blond then heard one of the merchants screaming in fury, he looked towards the cart that had been destroyed and walked over to it. He grabbed the man laying in the remains of the cart, all covered in various juices from the fruits he had squashed and hurled him away, the man landing on one of his colleagues.

The fire mage rummaged through his pockets and took out several jewels. "For the damage" he stated as he handed them to the merchant who looked at them with wide eyes, it was double the amount it would cost to buy a new cart and enough to pay for the goods he lost.

The mage in the fountain groaned as he tried to stand up, a hand suddenly grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up. He opened his eyes and stared in fear in the blue eye of the fire mage.

"Now that the beating is done, time to ask some questions." The mage before him stated with a grin "Or you could just be a defiant bastard and let me beat you some more." He told him with a smirk making the man shiver and cry silently.

"What do you want?" he asked with a scared voice as the blond punched him in the chest. "What was that for?" he cried out in pain as Naruto shrugged.

"Just felt like doing it." He replied as the man started praying to the Gods for salvation. "Now…where is your guild?" he asked as the man gulped and pointed down the street.

"Keep going down and then turn to the left at the mayor's house, then keep going down the street and the guild will be there." He replied as Naruto sighed sadly.

"And here I thought I'd get to beat you up some more." He replied as he turned around with the man and started walking away. He walked towards the man's colleagues that were still moaning on the ground. He then looked towards the man he was carrying and grinned as he dropped him on the ground and delivered a punch in his face, making the man lose conscious.

Pleased with the work he had done he pulled his cowl over his head and left the area, his destination the subdivision guild in the town.

People around him looked in wonder and as he left they rushed towards the downed men to check on them, they wondered what they had done to piss off someone from Fairy Tail.

A few minutes later the blond arrived at the guild, he looked at the structure in front of him. It wasn't special at all, just another random building that had been turned into the guild. He saw the flag he needed to take once the job was done.

He lowered his head and made contact with the large door; slowly, he walked towards the door and pushed it open attracting the attention of everyone in the guild. He scanned the area, there were at least forty mages and he could see the master as well in the back.

Naruto heard someone call out, asking him what he wanted. The blond ignored the question as he began walking forward, people looked at him curiously before one of them noticed the symbol on his hand. The man began to whisper to his colleagues who he was and they began to put together one with one. There was only one reason why the mage from Fairy Tail was here.

They stood up and walked towards the blond, making him stop in the middle of the guild. He looked around, they surrounded him from all directions. All of them were glaring at him, some of them were cracking their knuckles in an attempt to intimidate him.

"What do you want?" the master asked, a tall man in his early thirties. A large beard, he was wearing a leather jacket and sun-glasses, it made the blond raise an eyebrow at his sense of fashion.

"Oh nothing really…" he started nonchalantly as he looked around, they inched closer towards him, some were already preparing their attacks. "…just want to beat the shit out of you all and take your flag." He finished as he lowered his cowl and smiled towards them.

A few of the mages took a step back in shock and fear as they recognized who the blond was. The others steeled themselves, they outnumbered him greatly and they were sure that not even a mage of his caliber could take them all on. The blond smirked as he looked towards them.

"You got balls little Fairy…' coming here with your bold proclamations…" the master taunted as some of the members began to laugh, trying to intimidate the blond even further.

"At least I have them." He taunted back with a smirk as the laughter died down and the guild's master stood silent. Slowly, he brought his hands up to his glasses and took them off, he stared at the blond in the eyes.

"You…" he started pointing towards the blond with a snarl. "…you'll die today." He stated as the blond's smirk widened.

"Seems I hit a bulls-eye." He laughed as the man's eyes widened in anger. Moments later he charged forward sending a punch towards the blond's face. Naruto ducked under the punch as he felt the air above him shift, a small explosion reached his ears as he looked behind him with the corner of his eyes. The wall had been shattered by the force of the punch.

"Impressive…" he muttered as he jumped out of the way avoiding another punch. "…so this is your magic." He continued muttering to himself as he ducked under another punch, his eyes then narrowed as he moved his body upwards grabbing the man's arm and turning around. He tried to snap his elbow but before he could try he was forced to jump out of the way to avoid several knives thrown in his direction.

As he landed he scanned the area around him, remembering that he was now fighting an entire guild and not just one or two people. He grinned as fire burst around him forming several wild animals, they growled as they moved around the blond in a protective manner, some mages backed away trying to figure out how to proceed while other charged in blindly – their guild master included.

Naruto scoffed as he saw the guild master charge blindly in the battle, clearly he wasn't fit for the role of a guild master but then again this wasn't his problem. He looked towards his summons and nodded as they all charged forward colliding with the approaching mages. Several of them were thrown to the ground as the summons began to claw their faces and bite them.

The other summons were punched away or thrown away through the use of magic from those mages that knew how to react in time. Naruto ducked as the guild master reached him and delivered a punch, he jumped avoiding a leg sweep and blocked the man's leg as he tried to kick him away. He spun around grabbing the man by the arm and throwing him over his shoulder in the nearby wall.

Fire burst behind the blond, a scream could be heard from behind him. He turned around and looked at the mage that was covering his face and moving backwards. Before he could move out of the blond's reach he grabbed the man by the throat and punched him as hard as he could in the stomach, he then grabbed his head and slammed him on the floor rendering him unconscious.

Finally, he spun around and unsheathed his sword, raising it in front of him. An axe connected with his sword, the mage before the blond jumped away morphing his axe into a large maul. He swung it towards the blond who jumped up in the air avoiding the weapon. Naruto spun in midair and landed with his feet on the ceiling, he pushed himself downwards falling on top of the mage.

With his hands he grabbed the man's shoulder, he turned his body landing behind the man and lifting him in the air. He grit his teeth as he lifted the man up and then threw him in the wall, making him collide with his guild master. Said guild master had just gotten back on his feet when the mage collided with him, sending them crashing through the wall and landing outside on the street.

The blond then felt a thug as numerous silk treads shone around him. He scanned the area and noticed a woman in the back moving her hands towards him as if controlling the treads with her fingers. With a grin the blond summoned his fire which in turn encompassed his entire body. The treads caught fire forcing the woman to stop her spell and back away so as not to get burned.

Moments later the blond burst through the crowd, sending a large number of them in the walls and tables. He appeared in front of the woman, looking at her with narrowed eyes. Before she could react he delivered a punch making her stagger backwards, he grabbed her by the hair and moved behind her ignoring her cries of pain. He swept her legs with his foot turning her body so as she would face the floor. Finally, the blond released her hair and elbowed her in the back sending the mage in the floor.

The body connected with a large thud as dust lifted in the air around her, she gasped for air and tried to stand up. A hand grabbed her hair once more as her head was then slammed two times in the floor. Satisfied with his work the blond released the woman and stood up straight looking around, most of the guild was still having trouble taking down his summons, very few were left standing.

"You…" he heard the guild master call out in anger, he turned towards his location and smirked. "…I'll make you pay!" the man shouted as he charged forward, his face red from anger.

Naruto moved to the side avoiding the first strike, he ducked under the second strike, he spun around the man as he tried to smash him with his fists. The blond kept on dodging the attacks and moving closer to the other mages, each time the guild master delivered a punch he would hit one of his own rendering them unconscious in one go. Naruto had to give him credit, he was definitely strong if he could render people unconscious in one go…that or the mages here were incredibly weak.

It wasn't long before they were all down, out for the count. The guild master was panting after trying to hit the blond for thirty minutes with no luck. He was now completely surrounded by the blond's summon, said blond stood in front of him with his arms crossed over his chest and a victorious grin on his face.

"The council will get you…" he rasped out as Naruto walked forward and closed his fist.

"That is where you're wrong." He stated moving his arm back. "I am part of the council." He whispered loud enough for the man to hear before punching him in the face and sending him flying through the guild's walls back outside in the street.

Naruto looked around one last time to make sure that they were all down for the count, satisfied with his work he walked out of the guild, hitting any mages that were laying on the ground in his way. As he walked back in the street he turned around looking at the building and ignoring the people gathered around.

He summoned his fire and ordered it to retrieve the flag, it did as it was told. The fire moved up towards the flag ripping it down and letting it fall in the blond's hands. "One down…" he muttered to himself as he turned around and began walking away, dragging the flag behind him.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail**

**Ignis Deus – Chapter 12**

A lone figure walked through the street, it was dark outside, close to midnight. The wind blew gently giving the world around him voice; the only sounds that could be heard in the night were his footsteps, the wind and the occasional alley cat. There were no guards patrolling the streets as this was a relatively small town, they had no need for a town watch due to the mage guild here.

The fact that a mage guild existed in this town kept bandits and brigands away from the town, they knew it was hard – next to impossible – to defeat a guild in their home turf. The guild itself wasn't the strongest; it wasn't the largest as well, but the fact that it was a branch of Phantom Lord it made people think twice before trying anything.

Naruto however, he didn't care about that, he wouldn't have been here if he didn't know that he could take them on; that and the fact that by now Makarov or Phantom Lord had started the battle between the two guilds. It took him two days to get here, he had only two more guilds to take care of – one of which he was about to start with.

The blond came to a halt as he reached his destination. He looked up and studied the building in front of him, a frown appeared on his face, this wasn't exactly what he had been hoping for. The guild didn't look like a guild at all; it looked more like a sort of casino. The entire street was illuminated by the signs on the guild, and only by the signs.

He sighed a little and wondered how they managed to get all the money to build this, there was no way they gathered money through missions. Shrugging, the blond stopped thinking about that and walked up to the door. He checked to see if it was open, when the door didn't budge he summoned his fire and burned it down, casually stepping inside.

Once inside he was taken aback by what he saw, the entire place looked like a casino. There were gambling tables everywhere, slot machines, a stage for who knows what and a large bar at the end of the guild. Walking up to a machine he looked at it and wondered just how much money was in this place, he quickly shook his head, he wasn't a thief, Makarov wouldn't be pleased if he stole. But then again…

The fire mage smirked as he thought better, this was one of Phantom Lord's subdivision, Makarov wouldn't mind if he took some compensation from them, after all he was going to raze the building to the ground and beat the members to an inch of their lives.

He placed his finger on the machine and began walking forward, flames moved out of his finger tip and into the machine melting parts away and letting the money drop on the ground. The machines alarms started to sound as they began melting away, it was only a matter of time before the guild members would arrive to see what was happening.

Fire burst from his fingers and began consuming everything in its way, he looked around at all the expensive items that were burning away and grinned, they deserved this.

The blond came to a halt as he heard shouts and footsteps coming from the stairs, he turned his head towards the stairs and watched as the guild members appeared in the casino. They covered their eyes as the fire burst in front of them before vanishing; they noticed the man looking towards them.

"You!" one of them shouted in anger "What have you done?"

Naruto didn't reply, he smirked however and raised his head slightly so that they could see his smirk. They shook in anger as the blond's smirk widened, he was planning on endings this fast, before the town's people would try to put out the fire or go inside the guild to help – or rescue – those that are trapped.

He raised his palm and pointed it towards the group. Fire burst in front of them and exploded sending the small group flying in the stairs or making them fall on their comrades.

They groaned as they got back up on their feet and frantically looked around the guild for the intruder, yet the blond seemed to have vanished.

"Don't just stand there!" the guild master shouted in anger "Put that fire out and find that bastard!" he yelled as the mages began running in all directions. A few of them began casting spells and trying to put out the fire but each time they extinguished the fire in one spot it would reappear seconds later.

Naruto silently laughed as he saw them try to put out his fire, it would take much more to extinguish an elementals fire. Silently, he unsheathed his sword and chanted, the fire slowly intensified around the blond. As he finished chanting he stood up and cut the air in front of him with his sword sending a wave of fire.

The attack alerted the mages that were searching for him, they turned towards the source of magic and their eyes widened as they saw the large wall of fire racing towards them. They jumped out of the way just in time as the fire collided with the ground and the machines igniting everything it touched.

With a grin the blond vanished once again, consumed by the flames, only to reappear moments later behind a mage and swiftly knocking him out. This attracted the attention of everyone else and soon numerous spells were cast towards his location.

Naruto jumped out of the way as the bulk of their attacks crashed in the wall and the fire, creating an explosion that ripped the wall apart. The blond fire mage ran behind the slot machines and ducked under them as another hail of attacks flew above him.

With a soft sigh he placed his palms on the ground, fire spewed around him consuming him and vanishing moments later. A little trick he had learned from the elemental, as long as there was fire around he could warp within it to any location.

"Where is he?" one of the mages inquired as he looked around frantically. A crack echoed in the guild drawing everyone's attention to the ceiling, a large wooden plank fell from the roof, crashing on the ground just a few feet away from them.

The mages covered their eyes to protect themselves from the ash, it gave Naruto enough time to reappear and make quick work of two more mages. Appearing behind them, he grabbed them by the head and pummeled them to the ground, he then charged forward grabbing the next mage and vanishing with the fire only to reappear on the stage.

He turned the mage around and punched him as hard as he could in the stomach making him gasp for air, he then slammed his knee in the mage's chin making him fly backwards and drop on the stage.

Finally, he summoned his flames and created a shield behind him as another set of attacks were thrown towards him. With a grin the blond spun his sword around his fingers and then plunged it in the ground. After whispering the name of the attack the flames consuming the guild began morphing, in a matter of seconds they took the shape of small elementals.

The guild's mages stood rooted in fear at what they were seeing. The elementals turned their attention towards the mages, they growled as they moved towards their targets. The mages steeled themselves as they began throwing all their attacks against the elementals.

While they were kept busy by the elementals Naruto moved towards their guild leader. The man sensing the blond approaching spun around and slammed his fist in the ground making spikes burst out of the floor. The fire mage jumped in the air dodging them before being consumed by fire and reappearing behind the guild master.

The man once again spun around and hit Naruto in the head with his arm sending the mage in the wall. The blond shook his head as he turned towards the man and growled, he jumped back on his feet and grabbed his sword once more, he rushed towards his target dodging under another fist and slamming the flat end of the sword on the man's back.

A cry of pain echoed from the mage, the cry then turned into a hatred filled howl as he spun around and grabbed the blind by the head slamming him on the floor. However, before his head could collide with the floor the flames consumed him once more burning the man's hand. He screamed in pain as he released the blond who jumped back on his feet and kicked the guild master in the chin.

Naruto then spun around and raised his leg, then he lowered it on top of the mage's chest making him gasp for air as he crashed in the floor. Slowly, the blond bent towards the man and smirked as he looked up with a pained look. Before he could react the blond's fist came crashing down on his face rendering him unconscious.

**xXx**

Panic ruled over the streets of the small town, people were running around calling for help, calling for others to help them put out the fire that had ignited in the local guild. It was in the middle of the night when it happened, everything started with an explosion from inside the guild. No one knew if the mages were still inside or not.

From afar a person stood watching the building burn down, no matter how much water the townspeople would throw the fire wouldn't die down. He grinned slightly as he raised his hand and looked at the second flag he had acquired. Behind him stood a large number of people, all of them tied up and with gags in their mouths to ensure they wouldn't make a ruckus.

He stood up and walked towards the man in front of the group, crouching down to his level as he reached him. The man glared making the blond mage grin in satisfaction.

"You should have known this would happen…" he stated as the man growled "…your leader messed with the wrong guild, be happy it was me that came after you and not my colleague." The mage laughed.

In response the man spat making the blond pull back in disgust, he brought his hand up to his cowl and wiped it with a disgusted look on his face. "Fuck you." The man spat out as the blond turned to glare towards him.

With a swift move he punched him in the face making the mage fall on his back. "Maybe I should have let you burn in there…" he muttered in disgust as he moved towards the group and began hitting their pressure points, putting them to sleep.

As the last one fell unconscious he packed the flag and pocketed it, he then turned around and vanished in the night, the villagers would find them the next morning and by then he would be far away.

**xXx**

Naruto scratched his head as he looked at the road signs, he knew the way to Magnolia but he was surprised when he saw that the signs had changed, the name of the town had been cut out. Or more like the sign showing the way to the town had been ripped. He shook his head already knowing who could have done it – or at least having an idea.

With a shrug he continued walking at a steady pace. A few minutes ago a merchant leaving from Magnolia told him of what was happening in the town, he talked about a giant machine prepping to take down Fairy Tail's guild. He was put on the edge by that, but he kept his composure, he was more than certain that the mages of Fairy Tail would stop it and ultimately stop the destruction of their guild.

He was already planning on joining the fight once he handed over the flags, he just needed to see what they were going up against and prepare for all possible scenarios. The blond suddenly came to a halt as he noticed a peculiar figure in the distance. A man with long spiky white hair, a large scroll on his back – if he thought better though that scroll was massive – he was wearing a interesting robe.

The mage looked at the man who seemed to be scribbling something in a notebook, he started walking again. As he got closer to the man he stopped writing and looked up towards the blond, he blinked before he grinned and stood up.

"Ah, finally a traveler." He said as if he had been waiting on the side of the road for an eternity, in fact, from the way he said that it sounded like he hadn't encountered the merchant that passed by here some time ago. "You think you can help me with a matter?" the man inquired.

The blond took this time to study him more, the person before him was old, somewhere in his fifties if he was right. He had strange red markings on his face going down from his eyes and over his cheeks. Subconsciously he tensed, the man – despite his age – might be a mage from Phantom Lord he had never seen before.

Yet, the magic he could feel from him was different and very weak, from what the blond could tell the man's magic capacity was somewhere at the lowest of levels, even a child no older than twelve would be able to take him down from what he believed.

"It depends…" he replied cautiously as he stopped a few feet away from the man. "…what do you need help with?" he continued as the man smiled, seemingly not bothered by the fact that the blond was cautions of him.

"I was going to a nearby town when I got lost at that crossroad…" he stated as Naruto nodded and kept a straight face.

"And what town would that be?" he inquired as the man rummaged through his pockets and brought out a sheet of paper. He looked over it, scrunching his eyes as if he had problems reading what was on the paper.

"Ortogas…" he read as the blond let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"You took a wrong turn at the crossroads, you should have taken a left." He replied as the man smiled and nodded, he pocketed the piece of paper and smiled at the blond.

The man bid his farewell and thanked the mage for the directions before heading off. Naruto kept staring at the retreating form; the man was heading towards the town where he had taken down the first sub-division. He shook his head as he turned around, there was no way that man was part of Phantom Lord, or so he believed.

"Oh one more thing!" he heard the man call "Be careful when you head into that town, there's some strange walking castle … or something there!" Naruto turned around to ask the man what he knew about what was happening in Magnolia, yet when he turned he was surprised to see that the old man was nowhere in sight.

The man had vanished, he was sure that he had been there moments ago. With wide eyes the blond scanned the area around him, but no matter how much he looked and no matter how much he concentrated on finding any magic source in the area he couldn't detect the man.

Now Naruto was even more interested in him, he carefully took a step backwards and waited. Slowly he turned around and began walking away once more; he kept looking back as he left the area as if testing to see if the man would reappear.

By the time he reached the outskirts of Porlyusica's forest he was having second thoughts about joining the battle, there was something about that man that made him want to find more answers. As he stepped into the forest he felt Porlyusica's magic move around him, as if scanning him. She knew by now that he was here, she always knew when someone entered the forest.

As he reached her cabin he saw her conversing with Mistgun, with a scowl the woman turned towards him. "And another one…you two should be helping Makarov rather than staying here." She scolded, the blond grinned as he saw Mistgun look towards him and nod once.

The wind started to blow all of a sudden, Porlyusica looked up with wide eyes as numerous flags of Phantom Lord's sub-divisions began falling to the ground. Naruto smirked as he walked forward and sat down on the log next to Mistgun, the woman looked down at them and sighed as she shook her head.

"You guys still amaze me." She told them.

"Aren't you joining the fight?" Mistgun inquired while sparing a glanced towards the blond. Naruto stood silent for several seconds before replying.

"No…it's almost over." He replied, he could feel a large concentration of magic coming from the outskirts of the town. He recognized it as Makarov's, he knew what the old guild master was about to do. He never had the chance to see it with his own eyes, the man's ultimate attack.

Slowly, the blond stood up and began walking away, he wanted to see that attack, he wanted to know how powerful _'Fairy Law'_ was. When he was little the old guild master told him about the attack after he had overheard him talk about it with his nephew. He didn't go into detail what it does or how it works, but the blond didn't mind that, he had his own spells, his own attacks.

Upon reaching the end of the forest he began climbing one of the trees until he reached the top. He then turned his gaze towards the outskirts of Magnolia and watched with fascination as the clouds above the walking castle of Phantom Lord began gathering and in a matter of seconds a ray of light shot from the castle and began expanding in a circle.

The blond covered his eyes, a few moments later he lowered his hand and looked towards the battlefield. The castle was lying on the ground, dust rising in the air. Naruto sighed softly, he didn't get to see the effects of the attack and even if the light wasn't that blinding he doubted that he could see anything from this distance.

"Heh…and to think I was this close to joining the fight." He mumbled to himself as he leaned on the branch planning on staying in the forest for the night. If he returned now he'd get bombarded by questions as to why he wasn't there when they needed him, sure they would ask him in the end but for now he needed to rest as well.

**xXx**

The next day Naruto returned to the guild, or what was left of it. There weren't many people there when he arrived, Makarov was helping those present with constructing the foundation for the new guild, he was surprised to see people were working this hard early in the morning.

The blond began walking forward, moving carefully so as not to disturb the work flow. Guild members smile and greeted him as he passed by them, he offered his help but they declined stating they could handle what they were doing. Without even noticing the blond bumped into a makeshift bar.

He stared at the bar in wonder, he was more than certain this was the first thing they built, just to make sure they had some decent booze close by, he chuckled at that and turned around leaning against the bar. The sun was barely up in the sky, he doubted the others would get here soon. If he knew better Natsu was still asleep and Gray as well, though it surprised him that Erza wasn't present, she always got up early.

"Glad you finally arrived." Naruto smiled as he turned his head towards Mirajane, she smiled at him as she dropped several bags on the bar. "You weren't here for the fight…" she continued as she began rummaging through the bags and taking out supplies.

Naruto shrugged as he turned his attention towards the guild members that were working on the repairs. "I might have been here to fight, but that doesn't mean I didn't fight." He replied, a few minutes later he heard the girl giggle at his reply. He began to wonder how the events played here, when Phantom Lord attacked, when the guild was wrecked; he looked at the girl with the corner of his eyes as she was arranging the food and drinks she had bought and wondered what it would have been if he was here. Could the destruction of the guild be stopped?

The blond looked away exhaling deeply, he was thinking of what if's when he shouldn't. He turned his head towards Mirajane as he felt something hit his arm, he looked at the glass and smiled picking it up. "Why the long face?" she asked returning back to her work.

The blond gulped down the contents before replying. "Just thinking…of things." He placed the empty glass back on the counter and thanked the girl, he pushed himself forward and turned around taking a seat at the bar. He watched her as she began arranging the drinks.

"You know…" he started as he sat up and leaned over the bar tried grabbing a bottle. Mirajane's hand suddenly slapped his out of the way, she glared towards him as the blond grinned and moved back. "…I never got to say thank you." He finished as the girl raised an eyebrow.

"Did I do something in particular?" Mirajane inquired.

Naruto smiled as he rummaged through his pockets, moments later he took his hand out and opened his palm showing her the item in his hand. Her eyes widened for a second before turning soft, she smiled towards him – a mix between a sad smile and an apologetic one.

The blond took her hand into his and smiled. "Thank you." He told her softly, making her look down and smile. The blond's eyes widened for a second as he saw her begin to shake, he let go of her hand and stood up, he then jumped over the bar and moved towards the girl embracing her.

"Why are you crying?" he asked as she put her hands on his chest and shook her head.

"Idiot…" Mirajane mumbled softly between sobs "…I'm happy…all these years, I was afraid you hated me, I was afraid that I disgusted you with what I did." Naruto cringed slightly as he tightened his hold; he moved his hand through her hair as he tried calm her.

"I was never angry, I told you that already…" he whispered, the girl didn't bother replying anymore as she continued to shed tears of joy. He looked around and noticed Makarov looking at them with a sly grin, he shot the old guild master a glare, the man was already thinking something else.

He turned his attention back to the girl in his arms and moved his hand through her hair, he felt like he wanted to do more for her, he could feel all the pain she was holding inside her. The pain from the moment he left, when her little sister died and she stopped taking jobs, he sighed a little as he placed his head on her shoulder. He didn't really know what to do in moments like these.

Sighing inwardly he turned his attention back to the girl that was slowly calming down, he pulled back a little and cupped her cheek with his hand, she looked up at him and he smiled. Mirajane returned the smile as she embraced him once more.

"Thank you Naruto." She whispered kissing him on his cheek, she then pulled back and whipped the tears from her eyes laughing softly.

The blond smiled as he moved back and jumped on the bar, opting on sit on it. He grinned towards the girl who frowned at him. "Don't sit there, we have chairs you know." He shrugged as he turned towards Makarov who had appeared next to the blond – they didn't know how he did that or when he appeared.

"If he can do it, so can I." the old man smirked as he looked towards the blond.

"Unlike you…I'm the master here, I can do what I like." He replied only to have him and Naruto be thrown to the ground by Mirajane.

"I told you not to sit on the bar!" she shouted as a broom connected with Makarov's head, Naruto began laughing as he saw the object hit the master. He slowly stood up, still laughing at Makarov, and then sat down on one of the chairs at the bar. The old guild master rubbed his head as he jumped on a chair next to the blond.

The two stayed in silence for some time, Mirajane had left to attend other matters leaving the two alone at the bar. Makarov was the one to break the silence; they started with an idle chat and then proceeded to discuss the matter with Phantom Lord.

The old man had yet to get word on the council or hear anything in particular from them, when he asked Naruto the blond told them that everything was quiet and they didn't suspect anything, he admitted though that he had a bad feeling, that something wasn't going to go right.

The blond went on, explaining what he had Mistgun had been doing while Fairy Tail fought their battle here in Magnolia. He was surprised to find out that Makarov already knew about this, or at least had an idea why he and Mistgun hadn't been present to partake in the battle.

It was a week later that everything went bad, or at least bad in Naruto's opinion. For Makarov it was the same old stuff that the council always wanted to say or blabber about. It was for Naruto that things didn't go so well. While Makarov was being auditioned he was supposed to interrogate his fellow comrades as punishment for hiding the fact that two guilds were fighting against each other, worse still, that he took part in the battle.

So for one full day he stood with the Rune Knights, interrogating his fellow guild mates under the eyes of the commander who would have to report his actions to the council. He didn't need to screw up and lose his position in the council. He was sure, that if he lost it not only would he be forced to stop his search for the artifacts but they would have the upper-hand in forcing the guild to disband.

So he did as he was told, even though he wanted to complain and tell them to 'suck it'. He was surprised that his friends understood what was going on and didn't make a ruckus, nor did they try to make it harder for him to finish what he was supposed to do.

He stood day in and day out "interrogating" the members of Fairy Tail as what transpired on that day. It also helped him get a clearer image on what happened to everyone and the guild, Mistgun hadn't been very clear on the details so for him it was good to know now.

Even Natsu didn't try anything stupid which was a plus in Naruto's mind; the sooner he was done with this job the better.

"Once more Gray, I need details." The blond said looking up from the paper in which he was writing his friends declaration. His face turned into a frown as he looked up at the ice mage. "Where are your clothes?" he asked, he was more than sure that when he entered the tent he was fully dressed.

He looked towards the commander of the Rune Guards, the man looked back at him and raised his shoulders and hands, shaking his head. He too was surprised by the fact that the mage was not wearing any clothes apart from his underwear. With a sigh the blond shook his head and looked up at Gray with a deadpanned expression.

The mage grinned at him. "What?" he asked as if he had done nothing wrong.

"Lets just get this over with." The blond answered with a sigh, something told him that all the troubles won't end here and that he will have to face even more troubles in the future.

**xXx**

"What's going on?" Lucy's attention snapped towards the source of the sound ignoring the table as it hit Natsu making him crash on the ground. Erza was facing Luxus, glaring at him, but what was more frightening was Naruto whose hands were covered in fire, he too was glaring towards Luxus, it looked like he was ready to jump on the mage at any second.

"You dare say that again!" Erza shouted angrily, Luxus smirked unfazed by the murderous look in her eyes.

"Then I'll say it again…" he stated raising his hand up and pointing towards the guild members behind her. "This guild doesn't need weak bastard." Erza shook in anger at that.

A loud crack resonated, the mage turned his head slightly towards the blond whose flaming fist was burning the table in front of him. "I dare you to say that again." Naruto spat out, his face scrunching into a sneer.

"To be looked down by a guild such as Phantom Lord!" he laughed, his laughter full of malice. "How embarrassing!" he shouted with a sneer that turned into a smile full of malice "I couldn't show my face at all for an entire week." He spat out as he turned towards three guild members. "And I'm talking about YOU!"

The three moved back a bit in fright and shock. "You are a disgrace to this guild! What were your names again?" he laughed as they pulled back and looked down in sorrow.

The blond suddenly shot forward as he grabbed Luxus by the collar drawing his attention, for a second he held his breath in fight as the blond's eyes changed color from blue to red, as if the fire was starting to consume him. "You are out of place Luxus." He spat.

The mage in question only grinned as he moved his face closer to the blond. "Is that so?" he whispered as he then head butted the blond making him stumble back.

Naruto moved his hand up to his head and then brought it in front of him, he stared at his hand and then turned his attention towards Luxus, glaring at him. "You fucking piece of shit!" he shouted as he jumped forward.

"Naruto! Don't!" both Mirajane and Erza shouted, but it was too late, the blond's fist moved forward. Before he could hit Luxus the mages hand shot up blocking the blond's fist, the fire mage growled in anger as he pushed forward.

"You should keep your mouth shut… _boy_!" Naruto hissed, Makarov's grandson raised an eyebrow at that. "You weren't here to take part of the battle."

The man grinned, then he laughed at the blond boy. "Me? What about you oh so great fire mage!" he shouted in glee "If I were here, the guild would still be standing! If I were here, none of us would have been defeated!" he shouted as he moved his face closer "If I were here…none would have looked down on the guild, I would make a better guild master than the old coot." He hissed as the blond's eyes narrowed.

Before anyone could even blink his right hand shot up grabbing Luxus by the head and slamming his head on the table, he then raised his up once more by the head and slammed him on the ground. The sky darkened as a thunder dropped down on the blond making him scream in pain.

"You dare raise your hand against me twerp!" Luxus shouted as he stood back up on his feet and grabbed the blond fire mage by the throat.

"Luxus! That's enough!" Mirajane shouted, yet the man didn't seem to hear her as he began chocking the blond.

Naruto's hands shot up, grabbing Luxus's arms and trying to pry them away from his throat. Fire burst around the blond and the lighting mage, it looked like it was about to devour both of them.

"Enough!" Mirajane shouted once more making Luxus release the blond who fell on the ground. He began coughing and gasping for air, Erza and Gray rushed forward and grabbed him, helping him regain his breath and getting back on his feet.

"Pathetic…" the lighting mage spat out as he turned around and began walking away. "…little mommy's boy can't even defend himself against someone that's strangling him…" he laughed, the fire mage tried to growl and charge forward only to be held down by Erza.

"You cunt!" he rasped out as he tried to charge forward.

"Naruto, stop it!" Erza whispered in a harsh tone, before embracing him. "Don't let his words get to you." She said as the blond slowly calmed down, he sighed as he slowly stood up and moved out of her arms.

"That fucking asshole…" he mumbled as he stumbled forward, he began walking towards the bar and once he reached it he sat down grumbling to himself.

"Is he alright?" Lucy asked worriedly as Mirajane frowned slightly. She nodded however as she walked over to the blond and asked him something. The blond girl watched as Mirajane smiled and turned around grabbing a bottle and then turning back to face the blond and handing him the bottle.

Lucy was taken aback by that a bit. "Why is he just sitting there drinking?" she asked to no one in particular. It was Erza however that replied to her question.

"To calm his nerves, it might seem strange but that's what he does." She said before walking to the mission board and grabbing a mission. "So…Natsu, Gray, want to go on a mission?" she asked as she turned towards Lucy "You too Lucy…and you Naruto." She said looking towards the blond mage warmly.

The blond shook his head however. "Got stuff to do…damn council…" he stated making the girl frown.

"Very well, we'll do this by ourselves." She said with a smile as Lucy cheered, Gray and Natsu however shivered slightly at the thought of having to play "best pal's" so as not to get on Erza's bad side.

**xXx**

Two figures stood on top of a cliff overlooking a massive camp in the forest. In the middle of the camp stood a large portal, it seemed like it was sucking the air from the world. One of the figures, on the left scoffed slightly at the sight, it was just like a war camp, blacksmiths forging weapons and preparing them for the fighters, guards patrolling the camp, captains giving orders.

"And all this…for one person." He murmured to himself, his partner however grinned in excitement at the sight.

"One person, true, but if intel is right that one person is a one-man army." He said licking his lips. "My blade thirsts for power, the power of this world."

The first looked towards his partner with a raised eyebrow, his voice was calm as he replied, yet his partner could detect a hint of anger in it. "Be careful as you stumble around here, there's no telling how strong they are."

He scoffed, they were the most feared men in the world, an army wouldn't stop them and the warriors here wouldn't be able to stand in the way of their goal. "You're talking as if you know something." He stated, a bit warily.

His partner did not reply at first, his gaze was constantly on the camp below them. After what seemed like minutes he answered.

"No…there is nothing here that worries me…" he replied calmly, and yet he could feel like something was off with his partner. His voice, usually stoic, held more emotion now – be it incertitude, anger…it was there, that hint of emotion – and that meant that there was something special here. That, or he was waiting for something, he was waiting for something to happen.

The ground shook violently, he moved back holding himself by the wall. He looked towards his partner who stood calmly at the edge of the cliff still overlooking the camp, his eyes widened as he saw a massive figure fly over them. He shook, both in excitement and fear at what he was seeing.

"Is that…" he began only to be cut-off by his partner.

"Yes…" he replied gravely, looking towards the massive creature as it roared towards the heavens. "…a dragon…" he finished his sentence as the dragon flew away from the camp, the man looked down towards those in camp, they were running around and preparing for a fight. He scoffed, they thought that a dragon would waste time on pitiful creatures like them?

He shook his head as he turned around. "Prepare yourself…war is about to start." He whispered as his partner grinned in anticipation.

* * *

**Note: **Right, took me a bit more time because I really, really, didn't want to go in the Phantom Arc, for me it seemed like there was no way to add Naruto to the battle without him taking away all the glory. I also didn't linger too much on his fights with the guilds since I have other plans and I want to reach the exciting part faster for my readers (and my) entertainment.

Also, I've been reading some of the new FT crosses out there and since there are a lot of people that requested Mirajane I will begin writing another FT cross, this time with Mira as pairing. The plot will be different, the premise will be different and the Naruto will be completely different. Hopefully I will have a chapter up tonight (as a sneak peak).

Happy holidays.

**P.S:** No, I will not tell you what the end means...


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